I don't mean to say I think excessive government control is a good thing.
Rather, this is a political question that ICANN/IETF/IANA has to avoid.
The ITU has avoided this studiously for decades, throughout the cold war
even. As I think you note, its just is the way it is. As the saying goes
'we give functionality, not policy.'
There are, though, good reasons to have some government controls on
telecom. Whether these controls are too excessive or too lax is not up to
ICANN or the ITU. I can think of cases were some good has come of it.
E911, for example. Radio, TV, cellphone allocations. Ham Radio licences.
If license-free wireless operation weren't restricted in power, few people
would be able to use 802.11 because one company would be broadcasting at
hundreds of watts, etc.
--Dean
On Wed, 3 Dec 2003, Dan Kolis wrote: