[governance] Skype, telecom industry and the openness of the Internet

Mon Oct 13 00:54:58 EDT 2008

Hi All, An interesting article implicating 'openness of the Internet'. Would
be a good issue to bring up on day 2 main sessions at the IGF, Hyderabad,
which includes references to openness. Parminder 

(CTIA is the international association for wireless telecomms industry...)

----------

Skype blasts CTIA

http://www.telecomasia.net/article.php?type=article
<http://www.telecomasia.net/article.php?type=article&id_article=10733>
&id_article=10733

Oct 10, 2008

By Sue Marek/FierceWireless

telecomasia.net

In a letter to the FCC, Skype's Senior Director, Government and Regulatory
Affairs Chris Libertelli blasted the CTIA and Sprint Nextel for telling the
FCC that the "entire Internet is open", when in fact, even the most-recently
announced handsets still block the Skype application, proving that the claim
of openness is false.

Libertelli also said that the CTIA's claim of openness in the wireless
industry directly contradicts that association's current litigation with the
FCC in which it wants the commission to "overturn the very openness rule
they now claim to embrace," Libertelli writes.

If the wireless industry is serious about openness, Libertelli says, CTIA
would immediately withdraw that litigation.

Open networks is a major theme in the industry right now and was a hot topic
at the CTIA IT and Entertainment conference in San Francisco last month.
Last April, the FCC denied Skype's petition to apply the Carterphone rules
to the cellular phone industry.

The Carterphone rules were enacted in the 1960s to force the POTS industry
to allow devices other than those provided by the old AT&T to connect to the
network.

Full letter posted below.

(http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/skype-letter-fcc-chairman-mart
in ) 

October 8, 2008
Electronic Filing
Chairman Kevin J. Martin
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
12th Street Lobby, TW-A325
Washington, D.C. 20554

Re: Ex Parte Presentation; RM-11361

Dear Chairman Martin:

Skype Communications S.A.R.L. ("Skype") responds briefly to CTIA's letter of
September 24th and Sprint Nextel's letter of September 26th, both of which
take issue
with Skype's earlier letter to you regarding the lack of openness of
wireless networks.
CTIA and Sprint go to great lengths to rebut Skype's characterization of
remarks made
at a CTIA conference earlier this month, which Skype viewed as indicative of
a hesitant,
closed network mentality among wireless operators.

Rather than prolong an empty debate about whose characterization of remarks
at the conference is correct, let me point out that Skype's application is
forbidden, blocked and otherwise interfered with by the largest CTIA
members.1 When CTIA members claim that "the entire Internet is open," the
intended implication is that the entire Internet is open, including to
multi-modal Internet communications applications like Skype. The truth of
the matter, however, is that, despite their representations to thecontrary,
applications are blocked even on the most recently-announced
advancedhandsets.2 The proof of Skype's argument is in the conduct of CTIA
members, no matter what speeches are made at conferences. If Skype is
blocked, the network is not
open.

I also would like to take this opportunity to remind you that CTIA is
currently
suing the Commission to overturn the very openness rule they now claim to
embrace.
If the wireless industry is serious about openness, CTIA would immediately
withdraw
that litigation.

CTIA attempts to sidestep the fact that its members' networks are not open
by
arguing that Skype itself is closed and, apparently, therefore cannot
advocate consumer
empowerment principles and network openness. To make this point, they cite a
blog
post by Mr. Michael Robertson, CEO of Gizmo Project, a VOIP application.

Fundamentally, Mr. Robertson is wrong. Mr. Robertson confuses open networks
with
open platforms. Skype is an open platform. Anyone, anywhere on the planet
can
download Skype for free, and he or she will be able to use Skype. Skype's
software is
open to any application developer through our public Application Programming
Interface ('API') program. Over 10,000 developers have taken advantage of
this API
and are part of Skype's developer program. In fact there are many
applications that use
Skype's APIs to send calls to/from Skype users and SIP endpoints, including
VoSky,
Fring, etc. Skype also recently collaborated with Digium/Asterisk, which
will now
bring Skype into "soft PBXs" for millions of users and allow many forms of
applications
and services to connect to Skype seamlessly.

Mr. Robertson is also wrong on the law. He rehashes the incumbent wireless
operators' various arguments against network neutrality and confuses to whom
the
Internet Policy Statement applies. Openness rules are properly targeted at
network
operators because of the limited intermodal choices available to US
consumers in a
wireless market dominated by the top three operators. Conversely, there is
nearly
limitless choice in Internet applications, with fierce competition and few
or no barriers
to entry. Quite properly, therefore, the Internet Policy Statement applies
to networks and
not to applications. Its aim is to assure an open Internet so that consumers
can choose
from the limitless number of applications available to Internet users,
absent
discrimination by network operators. To apply it to Internet applications
would flipt
the Internet Policy statement on its head. What the network operators are
doing is very
different. They restrict consumer choice by blocking Skype and other
applications to
commenting on the iPhone's closed operating system, Steve Wozniak,
co-founder of Apple
Computer, said "Consumers aren't getting all they want when companies are
very proprietary
and lock their products down...I would like to write some more powerful apps
than what you're
allowed."/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyand
telecoms
/3145691/Steve-Wozniak-interview-iconic-co-founder-on-the-iPod-iPhone-and-fu
ture-for-
Apple.html.

Oct 8, 2008 3 which consumers would like to have access. To apply the
Internet Policy Statement to
Internet applications would flip the Policy Statement on its head.
We greatly appreciate CTIA's invitation to attend the April show in Las
Vegas. If
CTIA members would like to prove their openness once and for all, Skype's
top
executives will be available to attend the conference. When a Skype user can
legally call
the Chairman of the FCC on the mobile broadband networks of each of the top
three
wireless networks, we will know that their conduct is consistent with the
consumer
empowerment principles of the Internet Policy Statement.
We look forward to working with the Commission and CTIA members to ensure
that the whole Internet - including multimodal applications such as Skype -
is available
to consumers.

Respectfully submitted,
________________________
Christopher Libertelli
Senior Director, Government and
Regulatory Affairs
SKYPE COMMUNICATIONS S.A.R.L.
6e etage, 22/24 boulevard Royal,
Luxembourg, L-2449 LUXEMBOURG

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