[governance] Program for IGC at IGF

[George Sadowsky]

Norbert,

The WSIS Declaration of Principles is a normative document.  It 
describes how things should be, just like the Bible, the Koran, and 
any number of other books and speeches.  Countries are free to act on 
them or not as they see fit.  It is true that over a longer period of 
time, some (but not all) such documents have a positive cumulative 
effect.

With regard to China, obviously there are some very strong incentives 
to spread the Internet, otherwise in such a controlled society it 
would not have happened.

It is true that economies of scale play a part in lowering costs and 
increasing competition, so one could argue that there is a floor 
imposed by lack of scale that a country cannot go below.  this 
reflects the real costs of being involved in thin markets.

I don't claim to be able to explain the behavior of the Internet 
industry in all countries, but I will claim that an unbiased 
competitive environment is generally essential, and government policy 
matters a lot in achieving it.

George

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At 9:46 AM +0900 10/23/06, Norbert Klein wrote:
>George,
>
>I am not sure if "our case" (Cambodia) is sufficiently covered. Where do
>the economics of scale come into play? Let me use two extreme examples:
>China and again Cambodia. I jump down some lines...
>
>George Sadowsky wrote:
>>  Milton,
>>
>>  I'm concerned with a slightly broader aspect, although my focus in
>>  this thread is clearly upon access, in a larger sense.  I'm concerned
>>  about the economic health of the Internet industry in a country, and
>>  that's very much a function of the government's attitude toward
>>  competition, free enterprise, laissez-faire (or not), and
>>  transparency, in procurement, in giving licenses, in creating or
>>  destroying barriers to entry, etc....
>Did the Internet development in China depend for its infrastructure
>development come from competition, free enterprise, laissez-faire,
>transparency in giving licenses etc.?
>
>We have a good deal of these things (that is why we have 8 telecom
>service providers, Cambodia was, some years ago, the first  country with
>more mobile phones than wired ones, and  if this figure is true I got a
>while ago, we have now 96% of all phones wireless.
>
>The wired infrastructure does not move ahead since some years, we have -
>as a country - very high Internet prices, and useful connectivity,
>exists mainly in the capital city and some of the bigger cities.
>
>It is also estimated that the electrical grid coverage reaches only 10%
>of the households.
>
>All this is not going to change easily by legislative decisions on the
>national level, and of course also not by any decision at IGF...
>
>But if there is any truth in the first paragraph of the Geneva
>Declaration of Principles, that "everybody" should be able to become an
>active member of the world wide  information  society - not only a
>consumer of information - the international community and its actions is
>extremely important.
>
>  Norbert
>>
>>  The healthier and fairer that the industry is, the more prices to
>>  consumers of Internet services will reflect real costs and not
>>  monopoly status, the more customers are able to trust the access they
>>  have as being confidential, then the faster the Internet will grow and
>>  serve the developmental goals of the country.  And, if the country has
>>  reasonable consumer protection legislation, it is likely to really
>>  benefit the growth of e-commerce on the net and not retard it.  These
>>  are issues that are directly affected by national government policy,
>>  legislation and regulation.
>>
>>  What I do disagree with is Avri's assertion that it is ONLY on the
>>  international stage that Internet issues can be dealt with.  I do not
>>  disagree with the implication that there do exist issues that require
>>  international attention.
>>
>>  Just trying to restore a sense of balance to the discussion ...
>  >
>>  Regards,
>>
>>  George

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