[ncdnhc-discuss] ICANN Reform: Role of ITU

[Hill, Richard]

I guess that what I should have said with respect to the license plate
analogy is that for telephony, ITU-T keeps track of the equivalent of the
little "country" stickers that you see on cars in Europe, for example "CH"
for Switzerland.  The list of agreed country codes for telephones is
published at:

  http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/inr/index.html

which also has a pointer to national numbering plans, which national plans
are not in any way controlled by ITU-T.  What countries do after the country
code is their business.  ITU-T does not decide to whom to delegate a given
country code, the country decides that.  ITU-T does not decide how many
country codes there should be, there is either one per country ( for
example, 41 for Switzerland) or less than one per country (for example,
countries other than the USA use 1) or more than one per country (for
example, France has 33 and several others for its overseas departments and
territories).  As many codes are assigned as are required "to make sense".
The definition of "what makes sense" is contained in published ITU-T
Recommendations, and administered by the TSB, see sections 5 and 6 of Annex
A of the paper at:

  http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/tsb-director/itut-icann/index.html

With respect to the license plate analogy, IANA has assigned (or delegated)
parts of the IP address space to the several RIRs and ICANN continues that
function, I think.  The RIRs then assign (or delegate) parts of their spaces
to the LIRs, and so forth.

For domain names, if my understanding is correct, ICANN decides how many
there should be, and what they should be called, and to whom to delegate
them.

In addition, ICANN supervises the maintainance of a computer-based, online,
24 by 7 database of the correspondence between the domain name and the
server which implements the delegations.  This is called the root server
system.  There is no equivalent for international telephone numbers.

Unless I'm missing something, in terms of the license plate analogy, the DNS
setup is like having a globlal, hierarchically distributed database of all
license plate numbers, with a private company managing the root server, and
the same private company also deciding the top-level hierarchical structure
of the numbers, and deciding who gets to assign sub-numbers under a given
top level.

Did I get something wrong? Or is it the case that the analogy to bicylces,
cars, and roads is not all that pertinent?

Best,
Richard

-----------------------------------------
Richard Hill
Counsellor, SG2
International Telecommunication Union
Place des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
tel: +41 22 730 5887
FAX: +41 22 730 5853
Email: richard.hill at itu.int
Study Group 2 email: tsbsg2 at itu.int
 



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law
> [mailto:froomkin at law.miami.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, 02 May 2002 19:23
> To: Hill, Richard
> Cc: 'discuss at icann-ncc.org'
> Subject: Re: [ncdnhc-discuss] ICANN Reform: Role of ITU
> 
> 
> I think the anology breaks down at the end.
> 
> ICANN does not assign IP#s.  It (arguably) delegates the 
> assignments to
> RIRs. (Arguably, since they pre-date it and ICANN has almost 
> no numbers to
> give, it doesn't actually do anything except collect fees for 
> preventing
> too many new RIRs from springing up and competing with the 
> incumbents.)
> 
> And, last I heard, ICANN does not assign domain names.  It 
> delegates the
> assignments to registries. 
> 
> One could say that ICANN assigns gTLDs.  This should end. It should
> delegate the power to make assignments something like it does 
> for IP#s.
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, 2 May 2002, Hill, Richard wrote:
> 
> > With reference to ITU, Marc Schneiders has written: "You do 
> not let an organization in the hands of bicycle sellers set 
> rules about the use of cars."
> > I'm not sure how to compare cars and bicycles with 
> telecommunications.
> > But I do know that most of the physical infrastructre on 
> which the Internet runs is built and operated on the basis of 
> ITU-T Recommendations.  For example, most PKI infrastructures 
> are based on X.509.  And the "local loop" that still provides 
> most of the "last mile" connectivity for most people is based 
> on ITU-T Recommendations.  Etc.
> > In terms of physical analogies, I suppose that it might be 
> more appropriate to compare telecommunications with the road 
> system.  If that analogy is valid, most of the "roads" are 
> built and operated on the basis of ITU-T Recommendations.  
> "Cars" (packets) are build and operated on the basis of IETF 
> RFCs.  "License plate numbers" for some types of traffic are 
> coordinated by ITU-T (phone numbers), "license plate numbers" 
> for other types of traffic are assigned by ICANN (IP 
> addresses and domain names).
> > Best,
> > Richard
> > 
> > -----------------------------------------
> > Richard Hill
> > Counsellor, SG2
> > International Telecommunication Union
> > Place des Nations
> > CH-1211 Geneva 20
> > Switzerland
> > tel: +41 22 730 5887
> > FAX: +41 22 730 5853
> > Email: richard.hill at itu.int
> > Study Group 2 email: tsbsg2 at itu.int
> >  
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at icann-ncc.org
> > http://www.icann-ncc.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> > 
> 
> -- 
> 		Please visit http://www.icannwatch.org
> A. Michael Froomkin   |    Professor of Law    |   froomkin at law.tm
> U. Miami School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA
> +1 (305) 284-4285  |  +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax)  |  http://www.law.tm
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