Negotiating for Global Success
The Denver Post
June 11, 2000

Istanbul, Turkey. This ancient city on the Bosphorus, astride Europe and Asia, has seen many civilizations, invasions and empires. Its rulers have included Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Ottoman Turks. Crusaders crossed here on their way to fight Muslims in Palestine and Mongols crossed in the other direction to conquer far into central Europe.

Over the last month, Istanbul has been host to a different kind of event, one much less cataclysmic, but of great consequence to our economic future. The World Radiocommunication Conference took place here during May, a gathering of 150 countries that manages a critical global resource, radio waves.

These radio waves are essential to modern communications, from transferring credit card data to TV broadcasts to cell phones. They are a vital public resource with enormous commercial applications. The stakes for both governments and industries around the world are huge--we're talking about tens of billions of dollars. Consequently, this Conference is crucial to companies and to nations. Our U.S. delegation alone had 158 delegates, including 115 industry representatives from 59 different corporations.

The United States had broad goals, ranging from protecting and enhancing our global positioning system to ensuring broad competition among satellite broadcasting and service systems to securing spectrum (radio waves) for the next generation of cellular phone and data transfer services. We were successful in meeting all our goals. Remarkably, so were the 150 other countries present.

That's because this is an unusual conference. Issues rarely go to a vote. The aim is to make decisions by consensus. That requires considerable compromising. The problems are both technical and political. They have a large impact on competition, on technological advances and on each country's sovereignty. In addition to all that, we're dealing with a finite global resource that belongs to all of us no matter where we live.

This combination of factors requires an atmosphere of good will, despite the very tough bargaining that goes on. It is not a time to throw our weight around. Decisions can bankrupt a company or give it great opportunity. They can open markets or slam the door. Teledesic, for example, which has yet to launch its satellites, sent 20 people to protect its future interests. They, and others, lobbied not only the U.S. delegation, but every other country in attendance.

On the technological side, we were successful because our engineers and lawyers are very knowledgeable and highly skilled. On the political side, we were successful because all of us spent countless hours courting other delegations, listening to their needs, discussing our objectives and working out compromises. In the end, the careful preparation and hard work paid off precisely because everyone went home happy.

Why does this matter? And why do we need to give in to others in order to further U.S. interests? Our companies operate globally. To be commercially successful, they need access to countries around the world. PanAmSat, for example, delivers programming worldwide. If a bloc of countries, angered by the United States, decides to deny them right of entry to their area, PanAmSat loses a share of its market and, therefore, revenue.

The U.S. military uses radars, weather satellites, flight communications and navigation technology globally. If other nations, who dislike our tactics, jam the radio waves we use for these activities, our military personnel and operations are in grave jeopardy.

That's why international cooperation on the use of radio spectrum is so important. We rely on the good will of nations around the world, no matter whether they're weak or strong, large or small, for our commercial and government well-being. That's also why the World Radiocommunication Conference is based on consensus. When a scarce natural resource is so critical to our national interests, we have an obligation to work with those who also rely on that resource for their national interests.

The results of the 2000 Conference opened doors of opportunity for U.S. businesses. It guaranteed continued protection for existing services offered by U.S. companies and for U.S. military operations. It ensured a competitive environment for consumers utilizing radio waves for a vast range of communications services. Negotiating for consensus gained us that success.