EC, Internet Players Welcome Plan for Globalized IANA Function

The U.S. is “honouring a long-standing promise at a critical time in Internet governance,” Kroes wrote. NTIA’s announcement (http://1.usa.gov/1d33FkM) came about a month after the EC said it wanted to be an “honest broker” in global Internet governance talks (bit.ly/1p3iCc9), she said. The next two years will be critical in redrawing the map of Internet governance, and “all those with an interest in preserving a trusted, free and open Internet must act now,” she said.

Kroes said the EC has had occasional “operational issues of concern” with ICANN, but she supports the Internet body as the coordinator and facilitator of decisions related to the DNS. The EC is working with ICANN, the U.S. government and other stakeholders to make the IANA transition a reality, Kroes spokesman Ryan Heath told us. Commission representatives are taking part in the ICANN panel working on globalization, and Kroes will be participating in an April high-level stakeholders’ meeting, he said. Europe’s “balanced and independent” position on the need to globalize IANA functions to secure and protect the free and open Internet has helped get that message across, he said. The transition “must not undermine or destabilise the operation of the open Internet, and we do not support any attempts to replace the current model with an intergovernmental structure,” Heath said in an email.

The U.S. has been “a very good steward, but the Internet is global, so giving one government a special position, even if it never really exercised it too much, was something that was going to have to change at some point,” Neylon said in an email. It’s unclear what shape a new entity should have, but no one wants control of technical DNS functions to “end up being controlled solely by government and big business,” he said.

The NetMundial conference grew out of Brazilian concerns about the mass surveillance revelations, Neylon told us. Many of the submissions on ICANN and the IANA function would have been about globalization, but NTIA framed the discussion in such a way that many concerns will be deflected, he said. The agency’s four conditions for transfer of the IANA functions -- that it support and enhance the multistakeholder model; maintain DNS security, stability and resiliency; meet the needs and expectations of the global customers and partners of the IANA services; and maintain the openness of the Internet -- send the message the Internet community wants to hear, he said. Stakeholders don’t want IANA functions shifted to a U.N.-style body or only big businesses allowed to play, he said. Whatever comes out of Brazil “will be quite different” from what was expected, with perhaps more of a chance for a collaborative approach, he said.

NTIA’s move aligns with the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association long-standing request that ICANN become globalized, ETNO said Monday. “This is only a first step,” said Executive Chairman Luigi Gambardella. Since ICANN’s birth in 1998, “it’s been clear that the U.S.’s role over the Internet’s unique identifier system was only meant to be temporary,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association Geneva Representative Nick Ashton-Hart. Whatever process ICANN and its partners use to design the final transition must engage stakeholders worldwide where they work and live, not just at meetings held by the organizations concerned as part of their regular activities, he said.