The U.S. delegation wants a successful World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), said Terry Kramer, head of the U.S. delegation. But if other delegates to WCIT attempt to expand the U.N. International Telecommunication Union's telecom regulations to the Internet, "we might as well not waste our time," Kramer said during a WCIT discussion in Washington, D.C. last week.

The U.S. delegation, however, will work hard to advocate for telecom competition and free expression during the ITU event, starting December 3 in Dubai. Open markets offer the only proven way to expand telecom and broadband services to more people, and the U.S. delegation has strong support for that position from parts of Europe, the Far East, and Latin America, Kramer said at the event, sponsored by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

The conference will give the U.S. delegation the opportunity to talk about the economic benefits of free speech and democracy, but the U.S. will have to be "shrewd" in how it communicates those values, Kramer said.

"We don't want to come across like we're preaching to others," he said. "At the end of the day, we need to influence others. We need to demonstrate an understanding of the environment they're in."

The U.S. delegation will spend the three weeks leading up to the conference selling its vision of the meeting to representatives of other countries, Kramer said. There are also some issues that the U.S. delegation will be willing to compromise on, Kramer said, although he didn't give many examples.

The U.S. delegation remains concerned that some countries will push for telecom-style termination fees for Web traffic, in an effort to raise money for broadband deployment, and that some countries will urge Internet censorship in the name of cybersecurity, Kramer said. The U.S. would not have to adopt those regulations, but U.S. companies would be significantly affected if other countries did, WCIT critics have said.