ITU, Changing Its Tune To Survive?>
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Utsumi's CEO think-tank to shake up ITU
By David Molony
04 October 1999
The secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union has unveiled a major
initiative that will involve chief executives from the telecoms sector helping him to determine
the ITU's future.
In a hard-hitting interview with CommunicationsWeek International, Yoshio Utsumi has
warned that a failure to adapt to the modern communications environment could mean that
the ITU will disappear.
As part of a plan to secure the ITU's future, Utsumi is establishing an advisory panel made
up of top-level industry figures to advise on the "direction the ITU should seek." The first
meeting is due to take place during Telecom '99, the ITU's flagship industry exhibition.
"If the ITU cannot find a means to cope with the present situation, it will disappear," said
Utsumi.
However, the plan has not met with a friendly reception from Internet service providers, who
say they have no interest in sustaining a monopoly-based industry.
"I don't think I can imagine a circumstance in which PSINet would be interested in joining
the ITU," said William Schrader, chief executive of PSINet Inc., Herndon, Virginia. "Nor do I
think I can imagine any changes to the ITU's charter or style that would occur in a fast
enough time-frame to be relevant."
Schrader said he was not one of the industry executives invited to the meeting.
The secretary general would not give a comprehensive list of who will sit on the high-level
advisory committee; nor can he be sure that the committee's advice will be taken by the
membership at large.
But Utsumi did say that it would consist of "top people" from America, Asia, Europe and
developing countries. So far about 20 people have agreed to attend the first meeting,
although the final tally could be as many as 40.
And some of the executives he hopes will join the panel are from companies and
organizations outside the ITU. These, said Utsumi, are "potential members," and for that
reason he is as concerned to get their opinions about the form and direction of the ITU, if it
is to become relevant to their needs.
This is not the only advisory committee the ITU has ever called on, but it is the first to be
drawn substantially from senior private sector business people. The chief executives from
service providers and equipment vendors would be supplemented by regulators, including a
senior representative of the Federal Communications Commission, Washington DC. Internet
interests will be represented by Don Heath, the president of the Internet Society.
Utsumi said panelists would be drawn from beyond the conventional telecoms boundaries
and would include the presidents of Sony Corp., Tokyo, and Japanese broadcaster NHK.
"You can think that the ITU is a club for BT or Deutsche Telekom. Today it shouldn't be like
that. The ITU should become for those people [in the] broader sense of telecoms."
In fact, some U.S. industry representatives have given Utsumi's plan a cautious welcome.
"The idea has potential, but only if the work of the group is constructive and taken
seriously," said Eric Nelson, vice president, international affairs, at the Telecommunications
Industry Association, a mainly vendor-based organization in Washington DC. "Advising an
inter-governmental bureaucracy can be frustrating because they have a number of different
reasons for doing the things they do - not all of them logical."
The move to set up the advisory committee is in line with Utsumi's election pledge of making
the ITU more business friendly.
As part of the preparations for Telecom '99, consultants Ernst & Young, London, polled
nearly 100 chief executives and other senior executives about the way the industry is going
(CWI, 7 June, p.3). The results clearly indicated a perception that the telecoms sector must
broaden its horizons to understand what is going on in computing and entertainment
sectors.
"We made it clear that it was going to be fed into Telecom '99, and many of the participants
were delighted that the ITU wanted to listen to their views," said Hugh Jagger, head of the
European technology, communication and entertainment practice at Ernst & Young.
The consultancy also has been charged with devising sessions for the Telecom show's
forums, which have a strong commercial orientation: "How do you get shareholder value out
of customer relationships rather than what what makes ADSL a good technology," said
Jagger.
Utsumi said he is trying to make Telecom more open to economic and social policy-makers,
not just telecoms experts. "We have asked many ministers and international organizations
besides telecoms organizations."
He has not given any details of the agenda for the industry committee's separate meeting in
Geneva. But he said he is inviting its members to make wide-ranging comments and
suggestions about the ITU and how well it serves the communications industry.
"I am expecting this group will make very high level, very public, very clear
[recommendations] to us," he said. "I am hoping this will take the ITU a big step forward,"
he added.
The committee will not be empowered to make ITU policy or set its reform program; any
recommendations will have to be considered by the ITU Council and eventually submitted
to members.
But Utsumi made it clear that the committee's advice would be the basis of the secretary
general's report on further reform of the ITU after 2000, a report commissioned by the ITU
Council at Minneapolis.
"I am making the best use of the framework," said Utsumi. "I am not under any instructions
[as to] what form the report should take."
Utsumi said the ITU can only maintain influence in next-generation communications if it has
the active support of the most senior industry leaders, because their opinions will persuade
engineers and developers throughout the industry that the ITU must be taken seriously and
factored into project plans.
At the same time, he argues that the ITU itself will benefit from an injection of constructive
criticism from industry leaders.
"Within the ITU, experts tend to become rather conservative because they face a lot of
difficulties," said Utsumi. "I want this ... initiative to give them new heart, because [people
within the ITU] will see they have big companies behind them." |
