[governance] Net neutrality on mobiles

[SAMUELS,Carlton A]

Ginger hit the nail squarely on its head; the crux of the NN issue for civil society is transparency.  The competitive free market will always devise methods, processes and activities intended to create advantage for one or other player. There will always be players willing to make investments to pump their wares; something for free that others are charging for is a tried and true method, ala "free" text messaging for x period.

Lowering the barrier to entry or participation is another. MS Windows took pole position in the OS space because there were apps driving its market penetration; a readily available SDK fueled the spread. Case in point: despite the hype and sleekness of the Iphone, it wouldn't have been such a hit without those apps.  And the smart decision to freely distribute its SDK. Putting some 'skin in the game' by making a popular  hi-traffic app available for free is not a stretch in marketing imagination.

Innovation tumbles over innovation, that's the law.

Carlton

-----Original Message-----
From: Ginger Paque [mailto:gpaque at gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2010 7:37 AM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Ian Peter
Subject: Re: [governance] Net neutrality on mobiles

Ian and Parminder,

This is an interesting point for me, but I wonder where the line is
between advertising and other issues, like 'free benefits' which David
mentions. For instance, when text messaging was first available in
Venezuela, it was free. It was free for long enough to get everyone
hooked on it. Then they started charging for it.

It is difficult for me to see this as a NN issue since it sounds more
like a 'free trial', or a 'package deal' that attracts customers. My
serious issues with NN are lack of transparency, not marketing.

Where do you see this 'line'?

I think this is a good time to discuss NN so that we can be more
productive in Vilnius.

Best, Ginger

On 8/7/2010 11:23 PM, Ian Peter wrote:
> Hi Parminder,
>
> Unfortunately Australia has already jumped ship on this too. It is common
> practice for ISPs here (who have volume charging regimes) to create free
> zones of their partner sites which do not attract volume charges and/or
> traffic shaping when people exceed download limits. Nobody here seems to
> want to pick this up as an issue. To me, this is a distortion of a free
> market and an open Internet at the same time and should be attracting a lot
> more attention.
>
> The mobile world, as you mention, brings with it other distortions and
> potential distortions (eg built in apps and interfaces)
>
>
> I agree - we should discuss.
>
>
> Ian Peter
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> From: parminder<parminder at itforchange.net>
>> Reply-To:<governance at lists.cpsr.org>, parminder<parminder at itforchange.net>
>> Date: Sun, 08 Aug 2010 08:51:02 +0530
>> To:<governance at lists.cpsr.org>,<ciresearchers at vancouvercommunity.net>
>> Subject: [governance] Net neutrality on mobiles
>>
>> Hi All
>>
>> The biggest mobile operator in India, Airtel, is providing Facebook free
>> of data download charges in India (apparently, only for 2 months). I
>> understand this is happening in other countries too; i read about
>> something similar in Russia.
>>
>> I consider this as an outright violation of net neutrality (NN).
>>
>> Since there are existing codes of conduct on NN in some countries like
>> Norway and Brazil, I will like to know from those who know and
>> understand these country specific arrangements well if such a thing as
>> above will be considered a NN violation under these codes.
>>
>> If indeed developing countries are to have any chance of being a part of
>> shaping and governing the future of the Internet, we should start
>> testing such cases as above with the telecom regulatory  authourities,
>> and if needed with courts and anti-trust bodies.
>>
>> Parminder
>>
>> PS: See latest developments on NN debate in the US at
>>
>> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/google-verizon-close-to-their-
>> own-net-neutrality-deal.ars
>>
>>
>> It appears that there is some move to treat wireless or mobile based
>> Internet on a different level vis a vis NN than wired Internet.
>>
>> As the largest market players - here, Verizon and Google - seek to
>> arrive at a mutually convenient  arrangement, and the only other party
>> to it is the US gov, itself representing very partisan, and largely
>> dominant, interests, as far as the global public Internet is concerned,
>> the real shape of global IG is quite evident. Where does the IGF, and
>> indeed the IGC come into this may be a question that we need to ponder
>> upon.
>>
>>
>>
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