Who Will Control Internet Infrastructure

October 2005

As the third preparatory meeting (Prepcom III) for the U.N.'s upcoming summit about the Internet and its infrastructure came to an end, a dispute erupted over whether the management of the Internet's names, numbers and protocols should be controlled by one nation or by a multinational structure.

Brazil, China, India and several other countries insist on a change from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the entity created by the U.S. government. The U.S. government insists on continued control of ICANN, which operates under the charity laws of California.

Many governments believe that this is not an appropriate entity to protect those who depend on the Internet for their economic, political and social needs around the world. The stage is set for a difficult round of negotiations to determine if an agreement can be reached to resolve this dispute in time for the 2nd World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) to be held by the U.N. in Tunis, Nov. 16 to Nov. 18.

A representative to the U.N.'s planning meeting for the Tunis Summit, Motlhatlhedi Motlhatlhedi, who is Botswana's deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology, described how several developing countries support a multinational body to be in charge of the administration of the Internet's infrastructure, rather than only the U.S. government.