ETNO: 3 October anti-net neutrality summit

Invitation-only shebang organised by Financial Times - at which there are no consumer reps or independent voices except Jonathan Liebnau of LSE (wonder what he'll say?). ETNO is of course the incumbents' lobby for Europe....

Internet co-regulation: 'Internet co-regulation' book launch 6 September 3...

'Internet co-regulation' book launch 6 September 3...: "It is at least unofficially announced that the launch by Cambridge University Press and your author will be during tea on Day 2 of the Soc..."

Mobile discrimination: Korea and AT&T

The mobile networks continue to aggressively pursue their subscribers who have the affrontery to use their data plans properly and therefore save money that they should be giving to the mobile networks. In the US, AT&T is playing the abusive boyfriend by going back on its promise not to cap data plans for heavy users, though it appears that 'heavy' is in this case 12 times the average or perhaps 4GB a month. That amount of data sounds like tethering your phone to your laptop - so customers are sleeping around on them. What is absolutely clear is that the network ids behaving in a totally non-transparent manner.
In South Korea, it's the Netherlands WhatsApp texting problem - in Korea, Kakao Talk (which sounds deliciousbut presumably does not offer free chocolate) offers free texts so the mobiles are determined to stamp on it. The regulator is expected to report in November 2011.
All this demonstrates that it's mobile net neutrality that is the really big problem - they are determined to stop you using the Internet freely on their 'unlimited' (sic) data plans. Now I would always advise you to leave an abusive boyfriend, but when all the other pimps are abusive too...

UK DSL has no congestion problem shock!

While KPN in the Netherlands is determined to do its worst by customers, and certainly has an arguable case that it's set out to provoke the Dutch authorities into deciding whether its mobile division is breaching net neutrality legislation (its defence is that as its screwing everyone on price rises, that's neutral), UK regulator Ofcom continues to monitor customer service.
Below the shouty headlines about the vast difference between real and advertised speeds, about which Ofcom can do very little as advertising is of course self-regulated, is a very interesting set of data produced by SamKnows and broken down by operator. Guess what - almost no discernable difference between peak evening and normal throughput - what we have here is no evidence of congestion and thus no need to throttle?

Internet co-regulation: Ofcom Regulating the Media: Part CXXXVII

Internet co-regulation: Ofcom Regulating the Media: Part CXXXVII: "Ofcom has issued a very useful 'fit and proper person' Q&A based on section 3(3) of the Broadcasting Act . For the avoidance of doubt, let ..."

Stuart Kuttner's career: an exercise in self-regulation?

Stuart was managing editor of the News of the World from 1987-2009 - yes, he would be the perfect whistle-blower, except that he stepped down as a sacrificial lamb after the 2009 Guardian story that blew all this open. "News of the World's current editor Colin Myler paid tribute to Kuttner, saying: "His DNA is absolutely integrated into the newspaper which he has represented across the media with vigour." By random chance, my first job after my first law degree was on a short-lived start-up trade title called 'Journalists' Week' (pre-Internet and died in 1991 with its proprietor, but links to its editor here and here), ultimately owned by bouncing-sinking Czech Robert Maxwell - who makes Murdoch look honorable. 
I went to present the idea to Mr Kuttner, for which I was permitted inside Fortress Wapping - this was only two years after the end of the seige and it looked like Guantanamo. He explained kindly to me - I was 21 years old and very wet behind the ears - that he "used to work on newspapers for grown-ups". He was kind enough to confirm my impression that tabloid journalism was already rotten to the core, which had been the theme of a comedy series of the time - as a later one confirmed Parliamentarians' behaviour, and still later spin doctors. 
Funny, huh? Well, no - because the 1980s programmes were made by the then-independent television companies London Weekend and Yorkshire, which both disappeared as a result of the decision to auction regional ITV in 1990, and then by both Tories and Labour opposition under Tony Blair to allow media cross-ownership in 1994 ahead of the 1996 Broadcasting Act - think of them as also auctioning their political support ahead of the 1997 election that changed 18 years of Tory rule to 13 years of Labour.
The buyer of a London franchise was Michael Green, whose spin doctor was...David Cameron. it all ended horribly for the horrible Green as his franchise got involved in ITV Digital, a failed rival to Murdoch's BSkyB, which had broken the law but thanks to Thatcher survived its merger between Sky and BSB in 1990. Cameron bailed in 2001, but the writing was on the wall for ITV Digital and its monkey (in any case it was a keeptime job until Cameron got into Parliament).
As for David Cameron, he learned not to take on Murdoch but to become best mates. What could go wrong?
The main whistle blower on Cameron's spin-soulmate, Andy Coulson, has today been found dead. Inconvenient truth.
I used to write a lot in the 1990s about media ownership regulation and its corrosive effect on politics and the media, then moved on to the disasters that would befall the Internet if that political-media poison spread into it, due in part to the teaching of Lawrence Lessig and Mark Lemley (nice link to a failed analysis?). It was described by Wu in 2003 as the abandonment of network neutrality. Interesting times...

Atlantic cousins slipping backwards on neutrality

If the US has decided to kick neutrality into the long grass, despite advocacy groups' attempts to enforce that 2008 Wu/Google-inspired 700MHz auction against the Android-fiddling Googlers in 2011.
In Canada, Shaw Communications nearly did a KPN by revealing a rival-crushing video service during the UBB hearings, but appears to have either back-tracked or clarified that video download via the Internet will screw their consumers no matter how it's downloaded.
This enforcement stuff is tricky, isn't it? Can you blame the Euros for hoping it all goes away...