Anthony Rutkowski’s response to Richard Hill

Citation

Rutkowski, A. (2014), "Anthony Rutkowski’s response to Richard Hill", info, Vol. 16 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/info-03-2014-0012

Anthony Rutkowski’s response to Richard Hill

Article Type: Letter From: info, Volume 16, Issue 3

Sir: In many ways, Mr Hill’s adverse reaction to my book review is like the book itself. His passionate belief in the righteousness of his WCIT-12 efforts and knowledge of “the facts” result in criticism of alternative views as “misstatements” or “uninformed.” As he notes,“[his book] provides the facts that will allow readers to draw their own reasoned conclusions”. Perhaps not.

What also remains lacking is an appreciation of the larger context in which the treaty conferences occurred – especially that it was the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services in the 1988-1991 timeframe, as well as fundamental provisioning changes occurring within nations, that brought about privatization and liberalization, and not the ITU’s 1988 treaty.

Ultimately, however, there are three facts that cannot be ignored. First, WCIT-12 was by far the greatest failure in the 160-year history of international telecommunication treaty conferences because the preponderance of major telecommunication nations rejected the results. Second, the 2012 International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR-12) instrument is not needed and is harmful to telecommunication development because it furthers regulatory rather than market dynamics. Third, the results by all metrics have subsequently accelerated the demise of the International Telecommunication Union – Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) standards body on which the treaty instrument relied.

Anthony Rutkowski

Netmagic Associates LLC, Ashburn, VA, USA