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Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, S.W.
Washington, D. C. 20554
This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order
constitutes official action.  See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS MEDIA CONTACT
December 13, 2012
Brigid Calamis 202-418-2200
 Brigid.calamis@fcc.gov

STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. McDOWELL 

REGARDING TODAY’S ACTION AT THE WORLD CONFERENCE ON 

INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS (WCIT-12)

The following statement can be attributed to Commissioner Robert M. McDowell:
Today, America’s delegation to the World Conference on International 
Telecommunications (WCIT), led by Ambassador Terry Kramer, stood strong for 
Internet freedom when it proclaimed that it would not sign new international rules 
that capture the Internet.  Our delegation’s resolve should be commended.
Unfortunately, a majority of the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) 
Member States, including many countries that purportedly support Internet 
freedom, chose to discard long-standing international consensus to keep the 
Internet insulated from intergovernmental regulation.  By agreeing to broaden the 
scope of the ITU’s rules to include the Internet, encompassing its operations and 
content, these nations have radically undermined the highly successful, private 
sector, non-governmental, multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance. 
Even though the United States refused to sign the new agreement, what happened 
today in Dubai could have ripple effects here at home.  Consumers everywhere 
will ultimately pay the price for this power grab as engineers and entrepreneurs 
try to navigate this new era of an internationally politicized Internet.  If this 
assault on Internet freedom continues unabated, consumers’ prices will rise while 
investment and innovation will stall.
As egregious as today’s action was, many of the anti-freedom proposals were 
turned back - but the worst is yet to come.  The United States should immediately 
prepare for an even more treacherous ITU treaty negotiation that will take place in 
2014 in Korea.  Those talks could expand the ITU’s reach even further.  
Accordingly, Internet freedom’s allies everywhere should more than redouble 
their efforts to erase the damage that was wrought today.  Freedom and prosperity 
are at stake.  Let’s never be slow to respond again.  Freedom’s foes are patient 
and persistent incrementalists.  They will never give up.  Nor should we.
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