17 March, 2014

Press release: Internet Governance: Europe’s leading telcos welcome NTIA announcement

IANA functions transition is a first step towards a more inclusive governance approach

ETNO, representing Europe’s leading telecoms operators, welcomes the announcement that the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions will be transitioned to the global multi-stakeholder community. This is an important step towards a truly global, multi-stakeholder governance model for the Internet and it is in line with ETNO’s long standing ask that ICANN becomes globalised as an organisation.

Luigi Gambardella, Executive Chairman of ETNO, said: “This is only a first step. European telecom operators are ready to play their part in this exciting and historic journey. Friday’s NTIA announcement represents an incredible opportunity to make the governance of the Internet more participatory and global, by including all stakeholders. We will be very supportive of ICANN’s efforts in opening up the IANA functions and we look forward to taking part in the community consultation process”. 

Last month, ETNO welcomed and supported the publication of the European Commission Communication on "Internet Policy and Governance", where the EU executive also called for the globalisation of the IANA functions. On top of this fundamental aspect, more is to be done if we are to improve and strengthen the multi-stakeholder dialogue on Internet-related matters.

Christoph Steck, Chair of ETNO’s Internet governance Working Group and elected business representative to the NetMundial High Level Multi-stakeholder Committee, said: "This is very good news: the Internet is global and so should be its governance. We congratulate the US Government for taking this historic step and we thank ICANN’s CEO Fadi Chehade for his leadership in this process".

Internet governance is an important topic for ETNO members as demonstrated by ETNO’s participation in various Internet governance. More specifically, ETNO is a member of the ICANN Business and ISPC Constituencies and participates actively in the annual Internet Governance Forum and the European Dialogue on Internet Governance.

About ETNO

ETNO has been the voice of Europe’s Telecommunications Network Operators since 1992 and has become the main policy group representing European telcos. We represent 38 operators in 35 countries, who collectively account for an annual turnover of €600 billion and employ almost 1 million people. We bring together the main companies investing in innovative and high-quality e-communications platforms and services, representing over 60% of the total sector investment.

Link to NTIA's announcement http://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2014/ntia-announces-intent-transition-key-internet-domain-name-functions

Learn more about ETNO's members https://www.etno.eu/home/about-us/members 

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