TIA International and Government Affairs Director Mike Nunes, along with representatives from TIA member companies, participated in the Bilateral Dialog on ICT trade in Hanoi, Vietnam, this week. The TIA delegation led the way on talks aimed at enhancing ICT trade and investment between the United States and Vietnam. 

The inaugural meeting involved a public seminar, government-to-government talks and an industry-to-government dialogue. TIA laid out an agenda featuring the key issues to its members, including:

Clear Policies and Procedures.  Infrastructure-related laws and regulations should be clearly defined, implemented and enforced to attract investment. Market liberalization must be an essential agenda item for Vietnamese leadership as it reforms its markets.

Regulatory Independence and Transparency.  Regulatory independence is a critical aspect of regulatory effectiveness, because it is key to creating an environment that fosters competition in telecommunications. A lack of a transparent rule-making process can signal a high degree of uncertainty, which often results in delayed investments. 

Procurement. TIA is concerned about a trend toward commodity-based procurement for telecommunications infrastructure without consideration of the impact of increased fragmentation of network topologies and technologies. In the long run, this fragmentation leads to increasing operational expense as well as high costs of implementing new services.  An example of this is a situation facing many large operators whereby the integration cost for deploying a new technology such as mobile Internet Multimedia Systems (IMS) outstrips the capital cost of their entire existing network infrastructure. We encourage procurement policies that balance competition with a longer-term view of operational efficiency.

Successful Licensing.  Licensing provides the basic certainty and legal security investors need to make significant investments in telecommunications infrastructure. Licensing criteria and conditions should be applied in accordance with regulations developed in a transparent and open manner. Licensing procedures should be expedient, particularly for value-added services which can be provided in a relatively short time once the market is liberalized.

Barriers to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).  Countries that have eliminated barriers to FDI have benefited from greater commitment and longer-term engagement by foreign investors as well as new management approaches, technology, and skills transfer to the host country. FDI has typically been the driver of telecom sector growth in liberalizing economies. TIA encourages the Vietnamese government to quickly implement World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments that allow increased foreign investment and to consider further liberalizing the telecom services market by allowing 100 percent ownership in both facilities-based and non-facilities-based entities.

Timely and Robust Implementation of WTO Commitments and Principles.  Adherence to WTO commitments and principals is critical for an orderly and successful liberalization of the telecom sector. As Vietnam makes progress on its efforts to implement new laws and regulations in a manner consistent with its commitments to the WTO, industry recommends prompt and comprehensive reforms that exceed the spirit and letter of the commitments. By supplementing the WTO legal protections with a show of clear intention to open markets to competition, Vietnam will foster investor confidence and participation in the market. This will lead to a dynamic ICT sector and, in turn, an improved operating environment for ICT-dependent industries. Industry encourages the Vietnamese government to establish competitive safeguards to prevent anti-competitive practices in the telecom sector, ensure efficient interconnection with major suppliers of telecommunications services, and administer universal service obligations in a transparent, non-discriminatory and competitively neutral manner.

Telecom-specific issues raised by TIA members include: urging Vietnam to establish a structural framework for improvement of telecoms infrastructure; establishing network reliability and quality of service; maintaining consistent global products and standards; authorizing strong encryption; and maintaining coordination among interconnecting carriers.

For information regarding TIA's participation in the U.S.-Vietnam ICT Trade Dialogue, contact Mike Nunes at +1.703.907.7725 or mnunes@tiaonline.org.

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On September 12, TIA hosted a briefing over coffee with Matt Borman, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration, in Nortel’s D.C. office. Mr. Borman briefed TIA members on the recent developments in export controls, including recent updates to dual-use controls for China.

Mr. Borman capably filled in for scheduled speaker Christopher Padilla, whom President Bush recently nominated to be Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade, and who was forced to re-work his schedule.  Mr. Borman has been with the Commerce Department since 1992 and is expected to become the acting secretary upon Mr. Padilla’s confirmation. In his current position, Mr. Borman is responsible for implementing the Bureau of Industry and Security's controls on the export of dual-use items for national security, foreign policy, nonproliferation, and short supply reasons.

TIA is planning a similar event in October with Mr. Hauko Saito, telecom attaché for the Japanese Embassy. Details on this event will be forthcoming.

For information about future TIA policy events, please contact Tom Shull at +1.703.907.7014 or tshull@tiaonline.org.

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Member companies in attendance included Alcatel-Lucent, ArrayComm, Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, ESRI, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Nortel, Panasonic, Telcordia, Texas Instruments, Uniden, Vtech and Ygomi, as well as a full battery of TIA policy staff. Steve Sifferman, ArrayComm Executive VP-Operations and TIA board member, presided over the meeting.

TIA Senior Policy Director Danielle Coffey introduced the leadership team's newest addition, Carolyn Holmes Lee, Director of Legislative and Government Affairs.

Key topics discussed were a variety of issues connected the 700 MHz Auction, including major questions about the upper C block of the spectrum; the 915 MHZ petition by Cellnet specifying new rules for the band; the June NPRM seeking E-911 comments and this week's FCC hearing on the subject; RTT, close-captioning and other issues relevant to the Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC); the FCC's broadband deployment and broadband practices Notices of Inquiry. The meeting also recapped major legislative issues such as TIA's success in having broadband language inserted into the America COMPETES Act, recently passed passed by Congress and signed by President Bush.

TIA won't hold a Spring Policy Summit in 2008 but will hold events at the Democratic and Republican conventions.

For questions or comments regarding the Public Policy Committee, please contact Tom Shull at +1.703.907.7014 or tshull@tiaonline.org.

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The Telecommunications Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC) announced the remaining schedule for the committee’s update on telecommunications accessibility standards last week.  The committee’s final report will be posted on November 27, 2007, and released in early January 2008, according to the schedule agreed upon by the committee. The announcement came at the full committee meeting held September 4-6 at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va.

The final report will provide recommendations to the U.S. Access Board and the Federal Communications Commission for the agencies’ telecommunications accessibility standards. The report is advisory; therefore, neither agency is required to implement the suggestions stemming from the report.  Further, committee members are encouraged to submit minority reports on issues where they disagree with the majority consensus.

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The International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) 2007 Council session, at which TIA serves as a delegate, began on September 4 with a “High-level Segment,” featuring ministerial-level presentations on the topics of cybersecurity and ICT infrastructure.  Subsequent presentations and discussion focused on developments in these two areas and cataloged obstacles to progress, including the scope of the problem, planned or implemented remedies and best practices.

In his opening remarks, ITU Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré noted the need for international cooperation on cybercrime, with the goal of “preserving the benefit of ICT for all while preventing crime.” Following Secretary-General Touré's remarks , ministers discussed the need for international coordination to tackle cybercrime and described various national efforts to establish cybersecurity guidelines, including the adoption of cybersecurity legislation. Thailand's delegation, for example, noted a recent computer-related crime act, which imposes fines and other punishments for violations. Thailand also distributes free software to block undesirable Web sites. Other countries noted efforts to adopt national roadmaps for addressing the problem, with some countries reporting plans for symposiums or conferences on the topic.

On the topic of ICT infrastructure, Secretary-General Touré noted the ITU’s efforts to support ICT investment in underserved areas. Launched in July, Connect Africa, the first in series of similar initiatives, will result in a summit to be held in Kigali, Rwanda October 29-30, 2007. Such initiatives are designed to accelerate ICT and economic development. It was noted that ICT infrastructure investment in Africa has increased dramatically, reaching $8 billion in 2005, up from $3.5 billion in 2000.  

For questions or comments on Council Session 2007, please contact Michael Nunes at 703.907.7725 or mnunes@tiaonline.org.

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Under the guidance of new Director of Legislative and Government Affairs Carolyn Holmes Lee, TIA sent a letter of support to the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee for the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2007 (H.R. 743/S 156). The bills, sponsored by Representative Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), would permanently extend the federal moratorium on Internet access taxes. 

In 1998, Congress enacted the first temporary tax moratorium, which has since been extended twice and is now set to expire on November 1, 2007.  With the moratorium scheduled to expire in a few weeks, TIA is asking Congress to pass these bills, which would permanently prohibit state and local governments from imposing these taxes, as well as multiple or discriminatory taxes for online transactions. 

TIA supports this action in order to protect the growth of innovative technology and the digital economy and ensure the availability of highly advanced and secure communications to all Americans. In this time of questions about the best methods for deploying broadband, such strong disincentives to network investment could undo a decade of positive trends.

Holmes Lee comes to TIA after managing tech-related issues including telecom and energy in addition to environmental and tax policy for 3M Company's federal and state government affairs department. Prior to working at 3M, Holmes Lee was Legislative Director in the office of Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, a prominent member of the Commerce Committee, which oversees many issues important to TIA members. Before serving with Snowe, Holmes Lee was a legislative assistant handling national issues for Congresswoman Sue Kelly from 1998-2001.

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