In recent years as regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have grappled with questions about net neutrality, there is at least one commitment they have made in common: to monitor market developments for signs that discriminatory or anti-competitive conduct may be chipping away at the openness of the Internet. While there has been minimal [...]
Privacy in a Future that is Forever
On June - 6 - 2012
The Internet is running out of address space and it appears that the solution has narrowly avoided a technical issue that carried serious implications for consumer privacy. The Internet’s inventors never imagined it would explode to become a global tool linking billions of computers and phones. As a result the addressing format they originally designed [...]
Categories: Consumer Privacy, Standards
Net Neutrality Discourses in the US and the UK
On October - 14 - 2011
Telecommunications policy issues rarely make news, much less mobilize thousands of people. Yet this certainly occurred in the United States around efforts to introduce net neutrality regulation. A similar grassroots mobilization has yet to develop in the United Kingdom or throughout most of the rest of Europe. My colleague Alison Powell and I have just [...]
Categories: Net Neutrality, Network Management
Doing the DPI Dance
On October - 14 - 2011
It can be difficult to predict when and why particular technologies will attract attention from policymakers. A few years ago, it seemed like around every policy corner — whether it be privacy, Internet neutrality, copyright enforcement, or cybersecurity — lurked deep packet inspection, a technical capability that allowed ISPs to gain increased visibility into the [...]
Categories: Consumer Privacy, DPI, Net Neutrality, Network Management
UK Key Facts Indicators
On August - 9 - 2011
In the spring the major UK broadband providers agreed to an updated voluntary code of practice that requires them to publish “Key Facts Indicator” (KFI) tables in a standardized way that describe the limitations they impose on their broadband offerings. The providers began publishing initial versions of these KFI tables in June. I plan to [...]
Categories: Network Management
Some Facts About the BT/AT&T Volume Cap Comparison
On March - 16 - 2011
With the news that AT&T will be introducing volume caps on its DSL and U-Verse broadband Internet service plans, a number of commenters (1, 2) have pointed out the contrast between AT&T’s move and the recent news from BT, which announced that it would be lifting its 300GB “atypical user” cap next month. The trouble [...]
Categories: Net Neutrality, Network Management
The State of Traffic Management Regulation in North America
On January - 7 - 2011
It has been two whole weeks since the FCC issued its Internet openness rules, and with holiday celebrations out of the way there has been some time for the details to start to sink in. Some observers seem to be perpetuating a high-level debate about whether the FCC went too far or not far enough, [...]
Categories: DPI, Net Neutrality
Lest We Forget: The Internet is a Network of Networks
On December - 20 - 2010
The last decade’s worth of US policy work on broadband Internet openness – first open access, now net neutrality – has focused largely on the access links operated by individual residential ISPs. But the recent dispute between Level 3 and Comcast has served as a jolting reminder that the Internet is a network of networks [...]
Categories: Net Neutrality
Level 3: On the Level?
On December - 1 - 2010
Note: This was originally posted on the Center for Democracy & Technology blog. Without knowing all of the commercial details, it’s hard to know what to make of Level 3’s recent claim that Comcast is threatening the openness of the Internet by requiring Level 3 to pay Comcast a fee to deliver Level 3 traffic [...]
Categories: Net Neutrality
Ring Ring, the Web is Calling – Or Not?
On October - 20 - 2010
Note: This was originally posted on the Center for Democracy & Technology blog. Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate at the RTC (Real-Time Communications) Web Workshop, a gathering focused on addressing what technical standards work is necessary to make real-time communications a reality on the web. Engineers and standards veterans from Cisco, [...]
Categories: Standards