[governance] Net neutrality & IG

[Ian Peter]

I agree with Bill, and raised network neutrality here some time ago as a
theme for IGF to take up. 
 
Another way to sort through the various topics and issues is to try and
isolate those where a government led forum might actually make some headway.
In this respect, issues which are largely regulatory such as network
neutrality are good targets where something might be achieved. On the other
hand, topics with strong technical components (such as spam and
multilingualism) can benefit from government attention, but rely on
technical work for resolution, which is proving difficult in both cases. So
resolution will take longer.
 
It would be good to see IGF addressing issues where governments could make a
difference.
 
Ian Peter


   _____  

From: governance-bounces at lists.cpsr.org
[mailto:governance-bounces at lists.cpsr.org] On Behalf Of William Drake
Sent: Sunday, 2 April 2006 10:17 PM
To: Governance
Subject: [governance] Net neutrality & IG


Hi,
 
Aside from being an element of Parminder's 'publicness' theme proposal,
there's generally been little discussion on the list of the NN issue.  Three
Sunday afternoon prompted by news items:
 
According to the Benton Foundation, Bush just signed legislation effectively
ending the game in the US by giving network operators what they want
HYPERLINK
"http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/1946"www.benton.org/index.php?q=node
/1946.  The assault on NN could now spread.  The ITU's recent Next
Generation Network workshop was interesting in this regard.  Operators in a
number of countries are already switching from legacy circuit switched PSTNs
to packet switched IP-based networks capable of delivery all IP-enabled
services, including video, and more will follow.  They will all want to
recoup these investments, capture new markets (or compensate for losses in
old ones, e.g. due to VOIP), and presumably seek to provide differentiated
QoS.  One would think operators in many countries will be emboldened  by the
US carriers' win to push for the same treatment, arguing inter alia that
they have to have the same opportunities as the US firms due to
globalization and potential competition to deliver cross-border services.  
 
NN might seem to be a topic on which there are not shared or generally
applicable international rules in place, aka IG.  This may be wrong on at
least two counts.  First, there's a lot of standards work under way to
create the conditions for convergent IP-enabled services and by extension
QoS differentiation.  Second, the biggest hole in the IG debate has been
attention to the fact that in monopolistic or oligopolistic markets,
companies may in effect set internationally applicable rules through their
daily business practices and strategies without having formally negotiated a
shared framework.  Major operators with significant market power pursuing
symmetric strategies could in effect reshape the net in some respects.  And
of course, policy coordination could emerge.  As with interconnection
pricing and developments in the 'security' field, supposedly dusty old
telecom operators and institutions could prove more important to IG than
some people want to believe.
 
Tim Berners-Lee recently said in an interview that absent NN, "It stops
being the Net... It would no longer be an open information space."  Maybe we
should push for him being a keynoter on this theme in Athens, governments et
al. undoubtedly would like some big name speakers...
HYPERLINK
"http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Arti
cle_Type1&c=Article&cid=1143499812060&call_pageid=968350072197&StarSource=RS
S"http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Art
icle_Type1&c=Article&cid=1143499812060&call_pageid=968350072197&StarSource=R
SS
 
Best,
 
Bill
 

 *******************************************************
William J. Drake  HYPERLINK "mailto:drake at hei.unige.ch"drake at hei.unige.ch
Director, Project on the Information
  Revolution and Global Governance
  Graduate Institute for International Studies
  Geneva, Switzerland 
President, Computer Professionals for 
   Social Responsibility
HYPERLINK "http://www.cpsr.org/board/drake"http://www.cpsr.org/board/drake 

*******************************************************

 


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