Proposed revisions to the International Telecommunication Regulations

I. Introduction

The United States looks forward to participating in the work of the CWG-WCIT12 to revise the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs). The communications market has experienced dramatic changes since the last time the ITRs were updated in 1988 and it is time to reflect those changes in the treaty. In particular, most countries have opened at least some segment of their communications sector to competition, which has led to greatly expanded services and the development of innovative new services to compete with fixed telephony and data. The United States believes that, with the exception of Article 6, these changes can be addressed by minimal revisions to the ITRs and that the ITRs should continue to reflect high-level principles that are sufficiently flexible to accommodate future technological and market changes.

II. Principles underlying USA proposals for Revisions of the ITRs