India has a pathetic fixed line infrastructure, and enormous mobile markets. Therefore, mobile net neutrality is the only real game in town. In September 2014, there were officially 15million DSL lines out of 27million fixed lines, a market penetration of 2.2%. There were 812million 'active' cellphone subscribers, 60million of those 3G. So mobile neutrality is neutrality....
Airtel withdraws VoIP charges for now, after forcing TRAI’s hand on net neutrality consultation - MediaNama: "Effectively, Airtel forced the TRAI’s hand: It instituted a pack that violated net neutrality, thereby, following the criticism and outrage, ensuring that the TRAI Chairman, Rahul Khullar announced a consultation process. Remember that Khullar said that Airtel’s action is not illegal, since there is no law preventing violation of Net Neutrality." 'via Blog this'
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Chaos Computer Congress 31 - net neutrality: days of future past?
C3TV - net neutrality: days of future past?: "Our talk will highlight the current debates surrounding net neutrality in Europe, the United States and other parts of the world. We will look at the results of the SaveTheInternet.eu campaign which was lunched a year ago on 30c3. We will discuss various legal protections for net neutrality, look closer at the experience of the Netherlands and we will give an overview of all important open ends of the debate." 'via Blog this'
Monday, December 29, 2014
Top blog posts 2014 - and 2009
Unsurprisingly you mainly read what I post about the European Directives - 13,000 of you read the post with the provocative title about ex-VP Kroes! More next year when this blog and the second edition of the book are my key research area - and keep reading!
Friday, December 26, 2014
Sky Broadband Sees UK Internet Traffic Peak at 2Tbps on Christmas Day
Sky Broadband Sees UK Internet Traffic Peak at 2Tbps on Christmas Day - ISPreview UK: "That’s why having a totally unlimited DSL or fibre package has become so important to families" including net neutrality to prevent Sky preferring its own CDN for shows? 'via Blog this'
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Schneier on Security: Reacting to the Sony Hack
Schneier on Security: Reacting to the Sony Hack: "Sony's reaction has all the markings of a company without any sort of coherent plan. Near as I can tell, every Sony executive is in full panic mode. They're certainly facing dozens of lawsuits: from shareholders, from companies who invested in those movies, from employees who had their medical and financial data exposed, from everyone who was affected. They're probably facing government fines, for leaking financial and medical information, and possibly for colluding with other studios to attack Google." 'via Blog this'
Monday, December 22, 2014
Hysterically funny UKGov spoof ad: "Now's the time for superfast (sic) broadband #gosuperfast"
Now's the time for superfast broadband #gosuperfast - YouTube: "Superfast broadband is much faster and more reliable than standard broadband. It lets you make video calls, do homework online and stream music, all at much higher speeds - and all at the same time." It must be a joke, right? The clue is in the song....'via Blog this'
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Genuinely interesting Ofcom idea: extend universal service, 2Mbps inadequate for video calling
"3.15 It may be time to review public policy around universal
service (3.65 to 3.66). The current universal service commitment, set by the
Government in 2009, specified that every household should have broadband access
of at least 2Mbit/s.16 It may now be time to review that policy, as consumer
expectations of broadband rise along with the availability and take-up of
faster broadband. There is evidence that broadband of at least 10Mbit/s is
required to support typical consumers’ use. Below that speed, overall broadband
performance is generally impaired. Indeed, use may be constrained for broadband
below this threshold, because some applications will not work properly, if at
all.
"Upload speeds are also an important consideration (3.85 to
3.86). This is especially the case for services such as high quality video
calling. The average upload speed in the UK is currently 3Mbit/s.
"3.86 Figure 25 below shows that the distribution of upload
speeds is skewed towards the lower end, with 80% of connections having an upload
speed of less than 2Mbit/s."
Tuesday, December 09, 2014
Ofcom Infrastructure Report: UK mobiles playing self-regulatory game
Ofcom is not measuring the actual level of throttling, zero-rating and fast lanes, but it is measuring self-regulatory commitments as per its strategy since 2006. "The most significant development is that all UK mobile operators have now discontinued packages which block access to VoIP services. On top of this, EE, Vodafone and Virgin Media have signed up to the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) Open Internet Code of Practice. This means that all major consumer internet providers are committed to the self-regulatory approach, a key part of the Government’s policy on Net Neutrality." So no change there....
Zero-Rating Violates Slovenian Net Neutrality Law
Competitive Analysis & Foresight: Zero-Rating Violates Slovenian Net Neutrality Law: "The electronic communications industry fiercely opposed the adoption of net neutrality rules. Its efforts were partially successful and resulted in watering down of provisions related to content, service or application discrimination. In response to lobbying by the industry, the National Assembly in the second reading removed an explicit prohibition of price discrimination from Article 203, paragraph 5.
A regulator, the Agency for Communications Networks and Services (AKOS), led by a former industry executive, has not been an advocate of net neutrality. Instead, it has taken a pro-industry stance on net neutrality and has not opposed attempts to weaken or even remove net neutrality provisions from the law. It is not surprising that it has not paid much attention to its imposition. Therefore, despite solid net neutrality legal protection, in practical terms this has not led to much of a difference." 'via Blog this'
A regulator, the Agency for Communications Networks and Services (AKOS), led by a former industry executive, has not been an advocate of net neutrality. Instead, it has taken a pro-industry stance on net neutrality and has not opposed attempts to weaken or even remove net neutrality provisions from the law. It is not surprising that it has not paid much attention to its imposition. Therefore, despite solid net neutrality legal protection, in practical terms this has not led to much of a difference." 'via Blog this'
Friday, December 05, 2014
Germany: privatisation of 32% stake in DTelekom - see why they will veto net neutrality?
Germany quietly shelves idea of Deutsche Bahn privatisation | Reuters: "In its report on state assets, the government is laying out plans for the possible privatisation of stakes in firms such as Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Post.
Merkel's "grand coalition" promises to balance the federal budget next year for the first time since 1969. Selling such stakes could help it do that at a time of slowing growth. It could also free up cash for public investments when Merkel is under pressure to spend more to stimulate the economy.
The government holds a 31.7 percent stake in Deutsche Telekom and a 21 percent stake in Deutsche Post. Together, the stakes could fetch about 24 billion euros, though the government could choose to sell a portion rather than all of its shares."
Turkeys don't vote for Christmas, the government is entirely conflicted in regulating Telekom. That's why it has been advised to sell....
Also note that Telekom is trying to offload both its US and UK mobile arms - and net neutrality would negatively affect both sales to some extent. It's worth billions...'via Blog this'
Merkel's "grand coalition" promises to balance the federal budget next year for the first time since 1969. Selling such stakes could help it do that at a time of slowing growth. It could also free up cash for public investments when Merkel is under pressure to spend more to stimulate the economy.
The government holds a 31.7 percent stake in Deutsche Telekom and a 21 percent stake in Deutsche Post. Together, the stakes could fetch about 24 billion euros, though the government could choose to sell a portion rather than all of its shares."
Turkeys don't vote for Christmas, the government is entirely conflicted in regulating Telekom. That's why it has been advised to sell....
Also note that Telekom is trying to offload both its US and UK mobile arms - and net neutrality would negatively affect both sales to some extent. It's worth billions...'via Blog this'
Merkel speaks out against net neutrality
Merkel speaks out against net neutrality - The Local: "At the Vodafone-hosted Digitising Europe conference in Berlin, she called for a splitting of services, "one for free internet, and the other for special services", adding that it was up to Brussels to negotiate how it would work.
"An innovation-friendly internet means that there is a guaranteed reliability for special services," she said. "These can only develop when predictable quality standards are available".
Merkel added that these special services would run over existing internet infrastructure.
Social Democratic Party (SPD) MEP Petra Kammerevert told The Local that this would make it more difficult to find a common European position on net neutrality.
"If Merkel goes into negotiations with the position she's outlined today, it will be very difficult for the European Council to find a common position," she said." 'via Blog this'
"An innovation-friendly internet means that there is a guaranteed reliability for special services," she said. "These can only develop when predictable quality standards are available".
Merkel added that these special services would run over existing internet infrastructure.
Social Democratic Party (SPD) MEP Petra Kammerevert told The Local that this would make it more difficult to find a common European position on net neutrality.
"If Merkel goes into negotiations with the position she's outlined today, it will be very difficult for the European Council to find a common position," she said." 'via Blog this'
Tuesday, December 02, 2014
Cisco's CEO Blames Net Neutrality for US Orders Slowdown
Cisco On Net Neutrality Isn't What It Seems: "what you’re seeing in terms of net neutrality, Titled II discussions going on, where in my opinion it would be a very disappointing in result if we moved back to regulation, the Internet like we did voice many decades ago. It would dramatically slow the ability of service providers to be on our broadband" 'via Blog this'
British Telecom Calls on FCC to Regulate Broadband 'Special Access'
British Telecom Calls on FCC to Regulate Broadband 'Special Access': "Bas Burger, the president of British Telecom in the Americas, wants to see the special access market regulated as a way to end the negative effects of the effective monopoly held by AT&T and Verizon in the U.S.
Special access is communication that includes data and voice used by enterprises, carriers and others to connect one point to another. For example, a cell carrier would use special access to connect a cell tower with the central office where calls are routed." 'via Blog this'
Special access is communication that includes data and voice used by enterprises, carriers and others to connect one point to another. For example, a cell carrier would use special access to connect a cell tower with the central office where calls are routed." 'via Blog this'
FRAND and net neutrality - is the Commission starting to understand?
One of the key questions in the net neutrality debate is whether ISPs can discriminate in pricing of both Internet access and specialized services - either surcharging or insisting on paid peering (as with e.g. NetFlix) or zero-rating/uncharging their affiliates (e.g. IPTV, Facebook or even Wikipedia).
This is at the heart of the matter as I have argued for at least 7 years (yes, getting old...). Not neutral, is it!?
This is at the heart of the matter as I have argued for at least 7 years (yes, getting old...). Not neutral, is it!?
Monday, December 01, 2014
EU Telecoms Council conclusions: nothing to see here....
"The presidency concluded that more technical work was needed with a view to defining a Council
position on roaming and net neutrality - issues in which the citizen has a central position. The
presidency will continue to work on the proposal until the end of the year, based on the guidance
given by ministers. Talks with the European Parliament would only start when the time is ripe." Ripe?
position on roaming and net neutrality - issues in which the citizen has a central position. The
presidency will continue to work on the proposal until the end of the year, based on the guidance
given by ministers. Talks with the European Parliament would only start when the time is ripe." Ripe?
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