[governance] Moving towards active development support in GLOBAL CONNECT

Wed Dec 2 12:27:18 EST 2015

Dear Deirdre,

Dave Burstein wrote:
"... Our companies should not use their market power to gouge. ..."

We are here not in the church or in any other form of theatre. There, 
any people can formulate this and do it. But we live in the reality and 
should use the reality.

Never, we can realize with the companies or state institutions from 
Europe or North America, and also from any continent, an open and free 
access to the internet. We have to organize itself.

In the design, it is more simple. We have only to look, what we need. In 
the construction, it is more difficult, because we need the technical 
components. And with any text on any paper or other media we never can 
create it.

"*Some companies have** developed enormous market power. *We all hate 
unnecessary regulation but also learned in our first economics class how 
damaging a monopoly can be."

Can be? We are not here in the preschool. Every monopoly is in principle 
a damage. That is the purpose for a monopoly.

I don't understand, why you distribute this text? Maybe, you can explain 
me to understand.

many greetings, willi
Coro, Venezuela

Am 01/12/2015 um 07:12 p.m. schrieb Deirdre Williams:
> An alternative view of the Global Connect Initiative.
> This is Part 1 of 2.
> Deirdre
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Dave Burstein <daveb at dslprime.com>
> Date: 1 December 2015 at 06:56
> Subject: [bestbits] Moving towards active development support in GLOBAL
> CONNECT
> To: Carolina Rossini <carolina.rossini at gmail.com>
> Cc: "<bestbits at lists.bestbits.net> bestbits at lists.bestbits.net&gt" <
> bestbits at lists.bestbits.net>, "redlatam at lists.accessnow.org" <
> redlatam at lists.accessnow.org>, "marcocivil at listas.ensol.org.br" <
> marcocivil at listas.ensol.org.br>, "IP-ENFORCEMENT at ROSTER.WCL.AMERICAN.EDU" <
> IP-ENFORCEMENT at roster.wcl.american.edu>, "infosoc at tacd.org" <
> infosoc at tacd.org>, "Bhardwaj, Manu" <bhardwajm at state.gov>
>
>
> Carolina, Manu and all
>
> Like Carolina, I apologize for any cross posting.
>
> With respect, I profoundly disagree with the U.S. approach. I will only
> speak briefly on this call because there is an agenda to move. I do hope
> you will consider a different approach, grounded in the economics and
> technical requirements.
>
> I'm writing about developing affordable networks for all. Human rights are
> also important but I bring no special expertise to that subject.
>
> Theme: *The role of Americans and I believe my government should be to
> support the needs of poorer countries, not to drive the agenda in our
> preferred paths.*
>
> First. We should recognize that the folks who have built MTN to almost 200
> million subscribers know a heck of a lot more about how to build affordable
> networks than I do. That's true for virtually any of the other lawyers and
> policy people working thousands of miles away. Bharti is serving more
> customers than AT&T & Verizon combined. They have many peers of exceptional
> ability. This is just being practical and honest. Most of the real experts
> are not in New York or in Washington.
>
> *We should concentrate on items in our power to change,* like the cost of
> international transit and the taxes our giant companies do and don't pay.
> We should not waste our efforts on factors primarily decided domestically,
> like the level of taxes and subsidies or the structure of the national
> industry.
>
> (Africa will pass the U.S. in Internet users around 2018. With help from
> Cisco, I reported that in 2012, one of the first reporters to notice. India
> is also going to pass the U.S. in about two years. The BRICs already have
> more Internet users than the U.S. and the rest of Europe combined. Every
> quarter, the Global South is adding 10-20M more Internet users than the
> North.)
>
> Second. My personal belief is that *the U.S. and Americans should primarily
> work on what we can do*,* not what we are urging others to do.* In
> particular, we should change policies that divert funds from poorer
> countries to richer ones. Our companies need to follow principles of fair
> trade and dealings. They should support the economies in which they are
> doing business.
>
> These wouldn't seem to be particularly controversial but lead to very
> different policies than our current ones.
> --------------------------
> For three years, I've been asking engineers and business people what are
> the largest issues raising network costs and reduce Internet use. The
> Africans have shown particular wisdom. This is what I've been learning.
> Please add your suggestions. We need a Code of Conduct here.
>
>
>     - *High backhaul/transit costs double or triple the cost of providing
>     broadband in most of Africa. *A megabit costs $0.50-$3 in most of the
>     U.S. and much of Europe. The same megabit in Lagos on 2014 cost $170, 100x
>     as much. 50-90% of the difference is cartel pricing, based on undersea
>     costs where there is more competition.
>      
>     We should support national efforts for bargaining leverage. Our
>     companies should not use their market power to gouge. (This is by far the
>     largest factor driving up costs. It's the same issue the U.S. Broadband
>     Plan discovered in most badly served rural areas. The Africans have already
>     built dozens of IXC's. It's insulting to pretend they need us to educate
>     them. Unfortunately, while they are generally a good tool, they rarely can
>     solve more than 10%-20% of  cost problem here.)
>     - 
>
>     - *Multinational giants should pay reasonable taxes. *The U.S. should
>     make i
>     t
>     so. Facebook & Google tax avoidance is far higher than their "charitable
>     endeavors." Most African leaders will tell you they don't need charity,
>     just a fair deal on taxes and trade.  France and England can't get Google
>     or Apple to pay taxes. What chance does Cameroon or Thailand have without
>     strong support from the giant's home countries? Changes in telecom pricing
>     have sucked hundreds of millions in taxes/fees and probably more from some
>     of the poorest countries.
>     -
>     - Columbia Professor Raul Katz just did an important study that
>     concluded Internet companies are making enormous profits in middle income
>     countries. The products have mostly been developed and paid off in richer
>     countries and at most a skeleton staff does things like sellnig some
>     advertising. In one example, Katz found a company like Facebook is probably
>     earning an 80% return.
>     -
>     - Multinationals should hire and invest in the countries in which they
>     do business. In years gone past, companies like IBM made sure to invest
>     where they sold. There are 130M? Facebook users in India. Many of them can
>     code, sell and manage.
>
> Looking a little further ahead, two enormous problems are developing.
>
>
>     - *High royalties may soon double or triple the cost of a low end
>     smartphone. * Hundreds of millions fewer people will connect. Carlos
>     Slim of Telmex told me at the Broadband Commission the $50 smartphone will
>     connect two billion more people. On a mass product like a smartphone, a
>     "reasonable" royalty would be something like 5-10%. Intel calculates
>     royalties may soon be $140 on a mid-priced phone. On inexpensive phones,
>     Microsoft, Qualcomm and similar royalties may be more than the total cost
>     to build it. Every international agreement calls for "reasonable" royalties
>     and it's time to make that so.
>
>
>
>     - *Some companies have** developed enormous market power. *We all hate
>     unnecessary regulation but also learned in our first economics class how
>     damaging a monopoly can be. Columbia Professors Eli Noam and Raul Katz are
>     doing seminal work on how Internet companies with scale have enormous cost
>     advantages and have often developed "monopoly-like" pricing power. That
>     scale will continue to make it hard or impossible for new companies to
>     succeed. Google has a reported 90% market share in search in Europe.
>     Facebook has more active users in India than there are broadband
>     connections including wireless. How many substantial competitors have
>     developed to Google and Facebook the last five years? Almost none.
>
> -------------------------------------------
>
> While the American proposals place importance on human rights, the Core
> Principles do almost nothing practical for development. They need to be
> made concrete and clear.
>
> Let's look at the proposals
>
>
>
>> *III - Core Principles*
>>>>
>>>> The core principles of this initiative are:
>>>>
>>>> 1)   Countries integrate Internet connectivity as a key part of their
>>>> national development strategy and budget process and consult with all
>>>> stakeholders in doing so;
>>>>
>>>
> Nearly every country has produced broadband plans doing just this. ICT is
> an enormous part of the government strategy from Rewanda to India tp
> Mexico. Ho Hum
>
>
>   2) International financial institutions and international development
> organizations prioritize digital access, including in the projects they
> support;
>
> The World Bank has done just that for over a decade. HoHum
>
>
>   3)  All stakeholders promote the linkage between the use of technology,
> expression, transparency and innovation; and the overall social, economic,
> and political benefits reaped from connectivity;
>
> To the extent this relates to human rights, I defer to those with greater
> expertise.
>
> 
> 4) All stakeholders promote dialogue and action on how to harness, deploy,
> and enable innovative technologies to support quality, affordable and
> sustainable connectivity for the unconnected, particularly in
> power-deficient communities.
>
> The last thing we need is more dialogue. From the Internet Society to WSIS
> to the ITU, everybod
> y
>
> has talked and talked.
> We do need action, but neither here nor in the longer version did I find
> anything concrete or new likely to make much of a difference.
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>       bestbits at lists.bestbits.net.
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>       governance at lists.igcaucus.org

-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t