Net Neutrality and why it looks like nobody (apart from the usual suspects) cares about it
Listers Apologies for cross-posting. There has been a lot of hullabaloo about Net Neutrality. The main proponents have been the two divides: Content Producers (Facebook, Google etc) and pure play Infrastructure players like AT&T, Vodafone etc. (By the way as things go now there are no longer pure play infrastructure and content producers as these players prepare themselves for a changing regulatory environment) Hardly any blip from major advertisers like P&G, Unilever etc. In Kenya of course busybodies like myself :) are very passionate about it and have talked ourselves hoarse about it. This was the very reason why we in Kenya didn't sign the ITRs in Dubai at WCIT12 (that's another story for another day). It seems now that the chickens are coming home to roost and the 'Reactionary' (allow me this creative license to name them thus) of the old world order (read Old Telco Hegemony) are reasserting their influence and projecting their power. This in my humble opinion CANNOT auger well for content Startups in our neck of the woods. What gives? Is it that these players find this topic too boring? Or has no impact on them? I suggest they change their attitudes..and fast! http://adage.com/article/digital/neutered-net-neutrality-advertisers/291089/?utm_source=digital_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage&ttl=1390401549 Ali Hussein +254 0770 906375 / 0713 601113 "I fear the day technology will surpass human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots". ~ Albert Einstein Sent from my iPad
Ali, You bring up a very important point. Net neutrality is extremely important for the Kenyan Internet/mobile industry. Kenyan companies effectively own no global networks and can only get a foothold into the Internet economy via producing content - not levying transit. If transit provider incumbents can kill net neutrality, they can also kill small content producing economies (i.e. Kenya) at the same time. There's no way small Kenyan content producers (i.e. not Silicon Valley, not Hollywood) will be able to compete. -Adam -- Kili - Cloud for Africa: kili.io Musings: twitter.com/varud <https://twitter.com/varud> More Musings: varud.com About Adam: www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 10:42 AM, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:
Listers
Apologies for cross-posting.
There has been a lot of hullabaloo about Net Neutrality. The main proponents have been the two divides: Content Producers (Facebook, Google etc) and pure play Infrastructure players like AT&T, Vodafone etc. (By the way as things go now there are no longer pure play infrastructure and content producers as these players prepare themselves for a changing regulatory environment)
Hardly any blip from major advertisers like P&G, Unilever etc.
In Kenya of course busybodies like myself :) are very passionate about it and have talked ourselves hoarse about it. This was the very reason why we in Kenya didn't sign the ITRs in Dubai at WCIT12 (that's another story for another day). It seems now that the chickens are coming home to roost and the 'Reactionary' (allow me this creative license to name them thus) of the old world order (read Old Telco Hegemony) are reasserting their influence and projecting their power.
This in my humble opinion CANNOT auger well for content Startups in our neck of the woods.
What gives? Is it that these players find this topic too boring? Or has no impact on them?
I suggest they change their attitudes..and fast!
Ali Hussein
+254 0770 906375 / 0713 601113
"I fear the day technology will surpass human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots". ~ Albert Einstein
Sent from my iPad
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Its the begining of Internet fragmentation and they started it, not rest of the world. And opportunity for (an)other powers to assume previous US internet leadership? On Thursday, January 16, 2014 11:19 AM, Adam Nelson <adam@varud.com> wrote: Ali, You bring up a very important point. Net neutrality is extremely important for the Kenyan Internet/mobile industry. Kenyan companies effectively own no global networks and can only get a foothold into the Internet economy via producing content - not levying transit. If transit provider incumbents can kill net neutrality, they can also kill small content producing economies (i.e. Kenya) at the same time. There's no way small Kenyan content producers (i.e. not Silicon Valley, not Hollywood) will be able to compete. -Adam -- Kili - Cloud for Africa: kili.io Musings: twitter.com/varud More Musings: varud.com About Adam: www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 10:42 AM, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote: Listers
Apologies for cross-posting.
There has been a lot of hullabaloo about Net Neutrality. The main proponents have been the two divides: Content Producers (Facebook, Google etc) and pure play Infrastructure players like AT&T, Vodafone etc. (By the way as things go now there are no longer pure play infrastructure and content producers as these players prepare themselves for a changing regulatory environment)
Hardly any blip from major advertisers like P&G, Unilever etc.
In Kenya of course busybodies like myself :) are very passionate about it and have talked ourselves hoarse about it. This was the very reason why we in Kenya didn't sign the ITRs in Dubai at WCIT12 (that's another story for another day). It seems now that the chickens are coming home to roost and the 'Reactionary' (allow me this creative license to name them thus) of the old world order (read Old Telco Hegemony) are reasserting their influence and projecting their power.
This in my humble opinion CANNOT auger well for content Startups in our neck of the woods.
What gives? Is it that these players find this topic too boring? Or has no impact on them?
I suggest they change their attitudes..and fast!
Ali Hussein
+254 0770 906375 / 0713 601113
"I fear the day technology will surpass human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots". ~ Albert Einstein
Sent from my iPad _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/adam%40varud.com
The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/ict.researcher%40yahoo... The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
Hi, On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 11:22 AM, ICT Researcher <ict.researcher@yahoo.com> wrote:
Its the begining of Internet fragmentation and they started it, not rest of the world.
It is nowhere near the beginning of fragmentation. That started long ago. And opportunity for (an)other powers to assume previous US
internet leadership?
Why would any single nation state presume to be a leader. The Internet has moved us well past the Westpahalian nation-state model. What this decision means is still in doubt, the court’s decision wasn’t based on a belief that net neutrality itself is a bad thing, but a view that the FCC implemented its rules in a legally questionable way. It will be appealed and/or the FCC will re-classify ISPs so the rules won't be legally questionable anymore...but as an ICT Researcher, you probably know that. -- Cheers, McTim "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how we get there." Jon Postel
Institutional corruption leading to regulatory capture -- http://www.ethics.harvard.edu/lab/blog/309-institutional-corruption Who deserves the blame for this wretched combination of monopolization and profiteering by ever-larger cable and phone companies? The FCC, that's who. The agency's dereliction dates back to 2002, when under Chairman Michael Powell it reclassified cable modem services as "information services" rather than "telecommunications services," eliminating its own authority to regulate them broadly. Powell, by the way, is now the chief lobbyist in Washington for the cable TV industry, so the payoff wasn't long in coming. President Obama's FCC chairman, Julius Genachowski, moved to shore up the agency's regulatory defense of net neutrality in 2010. But faced with the implacable opposition of the cable and telecommunications industry, he stopped short of reclassifying cable modems as telecommunications services. The result was the tatterdemalion policy that the court killed today. It was so ineptly crafted that almost no one in the telecom bar seemed to think it would survive; the only question was how dead would it be? The answer, spelled out in the ruling, is: totally. The court did leave it up to the FCC or Congress to refashion a net neutrality regime. The new FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, has made noises favoring net neutrality, but he also sounds like someone who's not so committed to the principle. In an important speech in December and a long essay released at the same time, he's seemed to play on both sides. But that won't work. The only way to defend net neutrality, which prioritizes the interests of the customer and user over the provider, is to do so uncompromisingly. Net neutrality can't be made subject to the "marketplace," as Wheeler suggests, because the cable and telephone firms control that marketplace and their interests will prevail. Congress? Don't make me laugh--it's owned by the industry even more than the FCC. http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-net-neutrality-20140114,0,5... On Friday, January 17, 2014 2:28 AM, McTim <dogwallah@gmail.com> wrote: Hi, On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 11:22 AM, ICT Researcher <ict.researcher@yahoo.com> wrote:
Its the begining of Internet fragmentation and they started it, not rest of the world.
It is nowhere near the beginning of fragmentation. That started long ago. And opportunity for (an)other powers to assume previous US
internet leadership?
Why would any single nation state presume to be a leader. The Internet has moved us well past the Westpahalian nation-state model. What this decision means is still in doubt, the court’s decision wasn’t based on a belief that net neutrality itself is a bad thing, but a view that the FCC implemented its rules in a legally questionable way. It will be appealed and/or the FCC will re-classify ISPs so the rules won't be legally questionable anymore...but as an ICT Researcher, you probably know that. -- Cheers, McTim "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how we get there." Jon Postel
participants (4)
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Adam Nelson -
Ali Hussein -
ICT Researcher -
McTim