[arin-discuss] De-funding the ITU (Apologies for overlap with the NANOG list)

[Bill Woodcock]

On Mar 21, 2013, at 2:43 PM, "Alexander, Daniel" <Daniel_Alexander at Cable.Comcast.com> wrote:

> Hello Bill,
> 
> I know this is an old thread, but it is an interesting topic. As I've been
> reading, I wonder how easily this petition could be implemented. During
> the last Plenipotentiary meeting, a clause was put into Article 28
> regarding finances. It is included below. Does anyone know if a
> reservation was taken to give the US more flexibility in its funding
> choices?

The U.S. included a general reservation, allowing the later definition of more specific reservations.  So there's no way this could be used to _force_ the US to continue to contribute at current levels.

However, in the many interesting conversations I had in the wake of the petition, the sense that I came to was that the R-sector satellite slot constituency finds the $11M/year to be a very low cost relative to the increased leverage they perceive they gain from it.  I'm in no position to judge whether their perception is correct, and they're actually gaining leverage through the large contribution, or whether that leverage would be diminished if the contribution were reduced, but they (the _other_ NRO, for example) see this as a minor expenditure relative to the cost of building and lofting a satellite.  The facts that there's no way to direct the funding to R-sector, and it's not coming out of their budget, notwithstanding.

                                -Bill