This excerpt originally appeared in The Technology Liberation Front on June 20, 2012.

Nobody denies that convergence between IP networks and traditional networks is happening. More and more voice and video is being carried over data networks. But Dr. Touré would have us infer from this that the ITU’s mandate should automatically expand to cover these new data networks. What we deny is that the ITU is needed to regulate data connections at all. The ITU is increasingly becoming obsolete. But like any other bureaucratic organization, it constantly seeks a new justification for its existence.