Instead of seeing basic connectivity as just another marketplace, we must look at it as we do roads. That means a state-funded organisation with one mission: universal gigabit access as a public service.
Divergent press responses to the NetNeutrality debate at Westminster e-forum this Tuesday:
Register neuters the issue ( and here).
Whilst ZDnet sets the issue alight, making a strong editorial statement on UK fibre future
- Network neutrality is a hot topic. With the internet now woven deeply into our lives, service providers should not have the ability to deny aspects of connectivity for commercial advantage. In general, the UK's regulators are relaxed about this; they say there's enough competition and freedom of choice to let the market control itself. That may largely be true, but there is one important exception — the link to consumer premises.(...)
- That upgrade has to happen. The physics of copper are being stretched to the limit. Many people are now stuck at a handful of megabits per second, the highest speed they're ever likely to get. That's not good enough: digital health provided at home is just one essential part of our future that will demand universal high-speed access, to say nothing of the enhanced environment needed to develop internationally competitive commercial services(...)
- The answer is deeply unfashionable: nationalisation. Instead of seeing basic connectivity as just another marketplace, we must look at it as we do roads. That means a state-funded organisation with one mission: universal gigabit access as a public service. That wouldn't be the death of the private ISP: far from it, as the business model of service provision over rented infrastructure is proven and allows for differentiation and competition. It would enhance the market by making it easier to change provider without the current regulatory mess. It would enforce network neutrality by default, while encouraging value-added services that can rely on a high-performance infrastructure.
Over a decade beyond George Gilder's Telecosm, we are still chasing Maxwell's Rainbow- the shift from a scarcity to an abundance model of telecoms; exploiting the banwidth of fibre and radio, as opposed to the copper cage that the telcos imprison themselves, and us, in.
Only some see the rainbow, and some dont....
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TELECOSM: How Infinite Bandwidth will Revolutionize Our World, by George Gilder (Author) "The supreme abundance of the telecosm is the electromagnetic spectrum, embracing all the universe of vibrating electrical and magnetic fields..."
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