[governance] phones vs. the Internet, was NTIA announcement on JPA

[Milton L Mueller]

> -----Original Message-----
> 
> Hi, Milt.  Actually, it's factually right.  The phone system is not
> one system, it's a bunch of national or regional systems connected
> together with gateways, more analogous to the way e-mail worked in the

And what is the Internet if not a bunch of local, national, regional or
corporate data networks (often using different standards, from 802.11x
to frame relay to Ethernet to others) connected together with "gateways"
called routers and proxy servers running TCP/IP? The only difference (as
I said in my initial message) is that TCP/IP was designed to connect
multiple networks from the outset and the interconnections of the
telephone system evolved bottom up. 

But both have a chokepoint for global coordination. Here's the crucial
difference: The Internet's chokepoint was institutionalized in 1998-9 in
a way that was designed to leverage top-level technical coordination for
regulatory purposes. The telephone system's was not. So the relevant
difference is more political, economic and institutional, not technical.
That was my point.

> currently mostly consistent around the world, but unlike the Internet,
> different countries have different incompatible hardware and software,

Ah, I see, there is no incompatible hardware and software on the
Internet. That is such good news! I will remember that the next time I
can't download a video file because I'm using Quicktime instead of
Windows Media Player, or the next time I can't use my European phone on
an American mobile network.

> and there have been plenty of inconsistent dialing plans, shortcut
> numbers, countries with wierdo rules for international dialing, you
> name it.  We don't even have consistent dialing in New York and

Sounds like NATs, doesn't it?

> The signalling in North America is completely incompatible
> with the signalling in Europe or South America, with gateways at the
> border to glue them together.

One word: SS7. Physical signaling uses different voltages but is not
"incompatible" because it (obviously) interconnects. Different countries
use different electrical standards, just as the various devices
connected to the internet do. 

The point you're making about the heterogeneity of legacy voice networks
is not really "incompatible" with mine. I am merely pointing out that
the Internet is not that different from telephone system in that both
have a regime for global coordination. 

>  A coordinated numbering space is merely
> a convenience to the telephone system, not essential like consistent
> IP and DNS addressing are for the Internet.

Chuckle. I am wondering what makes universal interconnection a mere
"convenience" for fixed voice and mobile telephony and "essential" for
the Internet. When the Taiwanese cables went out in 2006 it was
interesting to see how the financial system and general public was more
upset about the lack of telephone connectivity than Internet
connectivity. (That of course changes as convergence proceeds and the
internet carries more telephone and financial traffic)

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