Author Archives: John S. Quarterman

Hostile Corporate Takeover of the Internet

Creative Voices sums up recent FTC and FCC actions (or lack thereof) on net neutrality:
With momentum in Congress building to pass Net Neutrality legislation, the FCC and even the Federal Trade Commission quickly swung into action. The FTC, which has been hostile to Net Neutrality since it emerged as a serious concern, held what it described as a “public workshop on ‘Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy.'” In giving heavily “favored carriage” to panelists hostile to NN, the FTC unintentionally but compellingly demonstrated why NN is so necessary; to preserve the ability of citizens to access all viewpoints over the Internet, including those of independent and diverse voices, and then make their own choices, rather than have the government or the cable and telco companies choose for them.

The FCC also mobilized, launching an official “inquiry” into Net Neutrality. An FCC “inquiry” is often a no-deadline, never-ending process that results in no action. As Brooks Boliek noted in The Hollywood Reporter, critics contend that the FCC “majority on the five-member panel is stalling because they don’t want to do anything to prevent such big network companies as Comcast or Verizon from turning the Internet into their own personal amusement park” That’s spot on; this is little more than an attempt to give NN opponents an argument to fend off calls for meaningful Congressional action to preserve the freedom of consumers to choose what websites they can visit on the Internet.

— Net Neutrality Update, Creative Voices’ 1Q 2007 Newsletter, April 10, 2007

And as we’ve already seen, net neutrality opponents are already using the FCC inquiry for that purpose, even though the inquiry isn’t complete. Continue reading →

Neutral Net Face

An online chili vendor gets political:
Now, Maricle is worried that the big boys might gain an edge on the virtual highway where he set up shop. That explains why he and five other Internet devotees from Albuquerque sat down with Republican Rep. Heather Wilson in late February to urge her to act on “Net neutrality,” legislation that aims to block telephone companies from providing a premium service to Internet customers who pay higher fees.

— The Human Face of Net Neutrality, By: Jeanne Cummings, The Politico, April 9, 2007 05:34 PM EST

Politicians respond to local constituents. Continue reading →

Imminent Death of the Internet Predicted (by net neutrality opponents)

Net neutrality opponents have apparently gotten up to predicting that net neutrality will cause the Internet to melt down due to traffic overload; for example, here’s an article in Forbes.

Someone has taken the time to research these claims, and finds them hollow:

Why the surge of sky-is-falling rhetoric in the early months of 2007? Three possible explanations include misapplication of anecdotal evidence, the conflation of long-term and short-term views, and political gamesmanship.

— The Future of the Internet: Scare Stories, CIO Insight, By Edward Cone, April 4, 2007

Anyone who’s been on the Internet for a while has seen Imminent Death stories over and over, since about 1974, that is, back in the ARPANET days before the Internet proper even existed. Various opponents of Internet technology or deployment seize on the glitch of the moment and build that molehill into a mountain. Continue reading →

Packet Shaping and Net Neutrality

Rogers, a prominent ISP in Canada, has done something interesting:
For the past 18 months, it has been open secret that Rogers engages in packet shaping, conduct that limits the amount of available bandwidth for certain services such as peer-to-peer file sharing applications. Rogers denied the practice at first, but effectively acknowledged it in late 2005. Net neutrality advocates regularly point to traffic shaping as a concern since they fear that Rogers could limit bandwidth to competing content or services. In response to the packet shaping approach, many file sharing applications now employ encryption to make it difficult to detect the contents of data packets. This has led to a technical “cat and mouse” game, with Rogers now one of the only ISPs in the world to simply degrade encrypted traffic.

— The Unintended Consequences of Rogers’ Packet Shaping, Michael Geist, Law Bytes, 5 April 2007

Why degrade encrypted traffic? Because traffic these days is encrypted to prevent flow shaping on it. Slowing down all encrypted traffic catches that, including unauthorized movie sharing and the like. However, it also catches legal and authorized encrypted traffic. For example, I always log in on my remote computers using ssh, which is encrypted. This is for privacy. So is Rogers now making privacy slow?

Packet shaping doesn’t have to be a problem with net neutrality, but in this case it looks like it is.

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FCC Sees Wireless Broadband Internet as Information Service

The FCC has reclassified wireless broadband Internet access services as information services, just like DSL, BPL, and cable modems:
Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared that wireless broadband Internet access service is an information service under the Communications Act (Act). This action places wireless broadband Internet access service on the same regulatory footing as other broadband services, such as cable modem service, wireline broadband (DSL) Internet access service, and Broadband over Power Line (BPL)-enabled Internet access service. It thus ensures that wireless broadband Internet access services are similarly free from unnecessary regulatory burdens. Competition among all of these broadband services will provide consumers with more and better services at lower prices.

&mdash: FCC CLASSIFIES WIRELESS BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE AS AN INFORMATION SERVICE, Chelsea Fallon, FCC, 22 March 2007

Well, there is more competition in wireless Internet access than in cable or telco Internet access, but given the track record of this classification thus far in actually promoting more and better services, I have to remain sceptical. Also notice the word “consumers”, not participants.

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Is It Broke?

I’ve seldom seen so many conclusions reached by pole vault in one paragraph:
Everybody agrees that there are no actual problems with net neutrality, and as our own Chris Wolf explained last week, it doesn’t make sense to fashion legislative remedies to situations that don’t actually need remedying. If anything, it just shows that the supporters of net neutrality laws are looking for any avenue possible to impose restrictions on ISPs that would benefit the big online content companies. Whether through the Senate, through the FCC, through the state legislatures, it doesn’t really matter. Any opportunity to regulate the Internet is one they want to pursue.

— Ask Questions First, Change Policy Later, Hands Off the Internet, April 3, 2007 at 10:24 am

Everybody? Such confidence to be able to speak for everybody with no exceptions! Situations that don’t need remedying? I think the situation before August 2005 needed less remedying; now that the telcos have already gotten the FCC to abrogate net neutrality, the situation does need remedying. Restrictions on ISPs that would benefit the big online content companies? Only in the sense of no new charges for something they’re already paying for, and restraints on the ISPs restriction content or speeds. “Any opportunity to regulate the Internet”; oh my. How dastardly those net neutrality proponents must be! Continue reading →

FCC Local Ownership Study

Well, this is old but interesting:
Former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lawyer Adam Candeub claims that the government agency destroyed a 2004 study on the implications of local media ownership. The study, which revealed that locally owned television stations provide more local news coverage, blatantly contradicts the FCC’s assertion that “commonly owned television stations are more likely to carry local news,” an argument used by the agency to justify a position in favor of a hands-off approach to media ownership restrictions.

— Senator calls for investigation of buried FCC study, By Ryan Paul, ars technica, September 17, 2006 – 09:58AM CT

It seems somebody gave Senator Barbara Boxer a copy, so its existence is known, even though FCC commissioners deny any knowledge of it. Continue reading →

GSA Awards Three

U.S. General Services Administration awards a record contract:
Dealing a significant blow to Sprint Nextel, the government on Thursday awarded the largest-ever federal telecommunications contract _ a 10-year deal worth up to $48 billion _ to its rivals AT&T, Qwest Communications and Verizon.

The three contract winners will split $525 million, but beyond that they will have to compete with each other for the business of dozens of federal agencies needing to enhance the quality and security of voice, video and data technologies, the General Services Administration announced.

— Phone Deal Goes to Qwest, AT&T, Verizon, By DIBYA SARKAR, The Associated Press, Thursday, March 29, 2007; 5:54 PM

At least there’s an element of competition (with three providers rather than two in previous incarnations of the contract). On the other hand, Sprint had had the contract for 20 years, and losing it means Sprint is less viable, so that could mean one less big telco, and less competition longterm. We’ll see. Meanwhile, there’s another GSA award of similar size coming in May that Sprint expects to win.

Leaving aside Aristotelian conflict for a moment, there’s also the question of content: can any of these telcos provide real fast broadband?

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High-Tech Hillbillies

As Bruce Sterling says:
It’s Official: The Once High-Tech USA Has Been Reduced to Luddite Hillbillies
Here’s the more stodgy summary:
European countries and Singapore have surpassed the United States in their ability to exploit information and communication technology, according to a new survey.

The United States, which topped the World Economic Forum’s “networked readiness index” in 2006, slipped to seventh. The study, out Wednesday, largely blamed increased political and corporate interference in the judicial system.

U.S. Loses Top Spot in Global Tech Study, By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER, Associated Press Writer, 28 March 2007

Remember, this happened while U.S. telcos were busy reconsolidating into Ma Bell, rather than deploying real broadband (countries such as Japan and Korea have speeds 10 times faster than in the U.S., and available to everbody).

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FCC Changes Rules

The FCC has modified the terms of the AT&T and Bellsouth merger:
AT&T is required to offer a reduced rate to other phone companies that use its networks to connect calls. That means former Bell phone companies Verizon and Qwest, which use AT&T networks in some U.S. regions, would also pay the lower rate.

AT&T had previously agreed to cut the rate on the condition that Verizon and Qwest do the same, incurring the wrath of Verizon and Qwest and raising questions among some lawmakers.

US FCC agrees to changed AT&T/BellSouth condition, Reuters, March 27, 2007; 2:56 PM

On the one hand, this seems to level the playing field somewhat. Continue reading →