Saying ‘Dubai’ to Open Internet?

FCC’s McDowell, regulators and telecom advisers say renegotiation of 1988 treaty on telecom traffic exchange between nations could be next big Internet threat

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/20/2012 12:01:00 AM

The renegotiation of a 1988 treaty on the exchange of telecom traffic between various nations sounds at first blush like a home remedy for insomnia, but if you ask FCC commissioner Robert McDowell and an increasing number of regulators and telecom advisers, it is the next big Internet threat.

According to sources, the White House is convening a panel on Internet governance to look at the issue, and members of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) are meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, at the end of this month to talk Web governance.

McDowell has taken the issue to the stump, featuring it prominently in two recent speeches, while FCC chairman Julius Genachowski last week said at the Flatirons broadband policy conference that while the union has made a positive difference, he was concerned about an ITU model of Internet governance. “Moving from a successful multi-stakeholder model to one of centralized mobile decision-making for the Internet would obviously be a mistake,” he said.

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