Article Appearing in 28 July 2003 Edition of SpaceNews International

Access Partnership's Guide to Using the ITU

This Just In: The ITU is America's Friend

The United States - its private sector included - are by tradition mistrustful of UN organizations; and really what does a country with the power to do most things have to gain from the multilateral process?

The UN offers up, after all, a host of puzzling and fantastical situations: Libyans sitting in judgement on human rights, Zimbabweans questioning other national governments' legitimacy; Argentines calling for fiscal responsibility. So it is no surprise that our private sector, like many of the executive branch agencies they work with, also takes an apprehensive view of the business of UN organizations like the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

But the fact remains that specialized organizations such as the ITU should not engender confusion or mistrust. Rather, they represent a real opportunity to get a global endorsement for a company's business case, an opportunity that industry should seize more often -- and to better effect -- than it sometimes does.

For example, the last World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) was notable for very few business reasons. This has, no doubt, a lot to do with the limited investment (not) being enjoyed by the wireless industry at the moment. What's a bit of a waste, though, is that few companies seem to want to recognize the ITU as being a place where you can get the stuff that secures a business case. A WRC can consider any agenda item at any time, and can bring the "OK" of the whole UN membership to the plans of either a start-up or a multinational's business unit. Even the US Department of Defense is getting in on the act and recognizing what the ITU can do for them: the big-ticket issue at this last conference was one between the United States Defense Department and the community of satellite operators. Both sides came out happy, both with international endorsement. How often does that happen?

As the preparatory process for the next WRC begins to gear-up anew, small firms and large companies alike should look at the opportunity for obtaining the wherewithal to develop new products and services. In doing so, there are a few points about that ITU that are worth reviewing as the risk, costs, and timeframe for success in that murky environment are considered.

Point No.1: of ITU engagement: there are no blocs arrayed against you. Regional unity is one of the great deceptions of the multilateral environment.

Take Europe as an example. A common European position is anything but. It is a position common to no one and which is equally distasteful to all. This means that for any European Common Position that is different from yours, as many as 50 percent of the European administrations might share your position. They've simply compromised already in the interest of European unity, which is how you describe that instant between when Russia and Italy agree and before the French cut their own deal.

Also, for the record, the Arabs are not a bloc either. They are simply a bunch of people with wildly differing interests who share a common written language. There is a lot of talk at ITU conferences about the mighty Arab position, that at its best carries with it the weight of 22 countries. The Arab bloc is the contrivance of a few shrewd old gentlemen who are out to drive their less interested brothers into positions that benefit their individual administrations. Yet, as the old saying has it, where there are four delegates, there are five opinions. Count on some of them being pro-industry, often for their own self-interested reasons. Those are, after all, what even delegates from Arab countries are paid to pursue.

Point No. 2: To learn a country's bottom line, go to the regional preparatory meeting. Most delegates compromise several times before the WRC itself. Many compromise in their national processes and many at the regional meetings. What they say at the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity or Inter-American Telecommunication Commission preparatory meetings tends to reveal what they really think. So invest in sending some observers to regional meetings who can report back what the national positions where at those events; they tend to reveal where the fault lines are, and how far each administration can be pushed on your issue.

Point No. 3: Talk to everybody. You can always tell when a company has been too timid with other delegates, because when debate on their issue erupts on the plenary floor, they seem isolated. This need never be the case. The WRC is four weeks long for more reasons than the engineers' taste for fondue. That long lead-up is designed to help the delegates from small or broke countries to learn the issues on the ground - often for the first time.

These delegates represent (how to put this delicately?) opportunities. Green fields to be plowed.

Rather than spending the money and time to run complicated regressions and interference contours whose provenance alone requires an explanation of 50 pages (before we even get to the point they are designed to make), take a stroll down the plenary hall and talk to some of the delegates. Visit even the delegate of Swaziland. They vote too.

An outstretched hand and a simple message about your agenda item can go a long way. Then the next day go back to chat again. This time they'll reach their hand out to you. Soon, they'll be asking you for advice on a whole host of issues. When it comes time to deciding about your issue, you can believe that those five minutes of cumulative conversation are worth three years of contentious and expensive study group meetings, windy information documents, and any number of arm-twisting dinners at restaurants serving pungent cheese.

Point No. 4: The fewer resources you have at your disposal, the more time is on your side. As rule No. 3 suggests, generally, the longer you draw out debate on your issue, the more chance you have to change minds. Even if your opponent seems to have all the advantage, bear in mind that pure stubbornness, even up to the last day of the conference, usually sees other countries bending to your position. Hold fast and use the time to get friendly with the rest of the delegations.

Despite the misapprehensions of much of America, the record of multilateral engagements tends to favor the United States. WRCs are no exception. When the United States comes into conferences year-after-year with new and aggressive positions, and still gets their needs met, it says something about how threatening the ITU really is. As the spectrum needs of the industry and (recently) the Defense Department become more pronounced, corporate and military officers should recall that the ITU provides an opportunity. An opportunity to get international conformity to a regulatory regime that may benefit your interest alone. Where else can you find that kind of value? And following a few simple rules will help you get there less expensively.

Gregory Francis is director of the London office of Access Partnership, a consulting firm that specializes in international telecommunications trade, licensing and regulatory issues.