Public Policy Blog

After more than a year’s work and five three-day meetings at the UN premises in Geneva the CSTD Working Group on Improvements to the IGF has published its final report.  I have been a member of this workgroup as a representative for the business community and my personal take-away is: Against all odds and criticisms this [...]

On 2 May the European Commission adopted the Communication for a “Strategy for a Better Internet for Children”, which aims to: Give children the digital skills and tools they need to fully and safely benefit from the digital world. Unlock the potential of the market for interactive, creative and educational content online. The strategy brings [...]

On next Thursday 10th of May the Internet Governance Forum Spain will meet in Madrid for its 2nd Annual Conference.

The workshop organized by ETNO and ITU last month, in the premises of Belgacom in Brussels, was attended by more than 100 delegates from European and US industry and also by a few European government representatives, some representatives from the European Commission. Amongst the speakers were several US industry and officials, and an operator but [...]

As you all know, the review of the ITRs is a key issue in the ICT policy agenda for 2012 and highly debated in the international arena. Therefore, the association of the European Telecommunication Network Operators (ETNO), in co-operation with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), have announced a workshop entitled ‘Revising the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) – Preparations for WCIT 2012’ that will gather a range of high level speakers from across the globe, including speakers from the ITU, ISOC, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, USA and Telefónica, between others.

As indicated in a previous post, we were attending this meeting so here is a brief overview of the main discussions there. This meeting, opened by President Chinchilla of Costa Rica, attracted almost 1400 delegates from all parts of the world, being one of the most attended ever. The main topics discussed in Costa Rica [...]

When all attendees to this meeting where expecting new gTLDs to be the star of the week, the announcement made by the US Commerce Department (NTIA – National Telecommunications and Information Administration) on the IANA (Internet Assigned Names Authority) contract has shadowed any other issue.

This month, we celebrate our 1rst Public Policy Blog Anniversary! It is a pleasure to have shared these last twelve month with all of you and to celebrate today our one year milestone. ICT world policy is currently crossing an interesting moment with all the challenges to build a successful and Sustainable future that puts [...]

The current international telecommunications are regulated by an International Treaty signed by 173 countries in 1988, when international telecommunications services in most countries were provided by monopoly, government-owned carriers, and services were predominantly voice. Since then, the telecommunications’ world has experience a transformation in hardly 20 years which is difficult to imagine: markets have deregulated, [...]

After years of hard work and negotiations and not a few problems and tensions, on June 20 the Board of ICANN approved the opening of the award process for 500 new Internet generic domain names (gTLDs).