Featured Blogs

Are Big Tech CFOs (Inadvertently) Stealing From Shareholders?

When valuing a stock, analysts and shareholders evaluate always revenue and profit. Big tech COFs are sitting on assets worth tens of millions of dollars of annual profit (not just revenue, but true profit) in the form of unallocated IPv4 addresses. By not selling or leasing these out, they are incurring expenses to hold them and missing out on tremendous profits. At a 20X multiple (for context, Cisco is trading at nearly 18X earnings, Google at just over 33X earnings, Shopify at well over 700X earnings), big tech CFOs are actively preventing over $250 billion in market capitalization for their shareholders. more

A Patchwork Quilt: Abuse Mitigation, the Domain Naming System and Pending Legislation

A few weeks ago, Appdetex published a blog with predictions for 2021, and admittedly, at the date of publication, there were already very clear indications that one prediction was already in flight. In our blog post, we'd said, "With the global domain name system failing to abate abuse, and, in fact, thwarting consumer protection, get ready for a patchwork of local laws targeting attribution and prosecution of bad actors... Get ready for some confusion and turmoil in the world of notice and takedown related to local laws and regulations." more

Abuse Reporting: Names vs Numbers

For email usage, abuse reporting requires cooperation between senders and receivers. That's why RFC 5965 specified a standard format for it. However, Wikipedia lists only 18 feedback providers today. It is often said that the number of legitimate mailbox providers in the world is rather small, possibly some hundreds of thousands, but certainly more than that. more

SpaceX Proposes a Million More Satellites on Paper

SpaceX has filed a plan to place more than a million satellites in low Earth orbit, recasting data centres as spaceborne infrastructure while testing regulators, safety, competition and the line between vision and paper ambition. more

The Early History of Usenet, Part IX: Retrospective Thoughts

Usenet is 40 years old. Did we get it right, way back when? What could/should we have done differently, with the technology of the time and with what we should have known or could feasibly have learned? And what are the lessons for today? A few things were obviously right, even in retrospect. For the expected volume of communications and expected connectivity, a flooding algorithm was the only real choice. more

IPv4 and Education: The Basics

An IP address is a unique identifier for a device on a network, including the internet. IP stands for Internet Protocol (IP) which is a set of rules (a protocol) for addressing and routing data so it can travel through networks and arrive at its intended destination. Hence, "address." Internet-connected devices such as computers and smartphones each have a unique IP address. more

Carriers Are No Longer Operators

The classic view of a wireline or mobile carrier is that it was an "operator", it ran out cables, raised poles, installed switches, constructed central offices and base stations and the like. However, the figures from Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) show that firm is making 45% of its sales from services, meaning it is constructing and managing networks on behalf of "carriers". NSN is "carrying" a lot of telecoms traffic. This has been accelerated by the global financial crisis... more

Taking It to the Streets

It is interesting to see telecommunications policy issues being covered by the general media. Of course, we expect to see coverage of communications issues in the business press. The sector is a large employer, makes massive investments in infrastructure and virtually every citizen buys communications products and services every month. Still, covering the sector in the business section is different from seeing coverage move to the front page or the general editorial pages. more

Afnic Reveals the Results of Its Study of the World’s Domain Name Market in 2018

A new publication of Afnic deals with the overall trends of the Domain Name market in 2018. The publication of ICANN statistics as at the end of last year allows a quantified assessment of 2018, a period of moderate upswing after the "set-down" of 2017. The data on which this study is based come from ICANN reports from information provided by registries in certain frameworks. more

The Great Telco Quality Transformation

The telecoms industry has two fundamental issues whose resolution is a multi-decade business and technology transformation effort. This re-engineering programme turns the current "quantities with quality" model into a "quantities of quality" one. Those who prosper will have to overcome a powerfully entrenched incumbent "bandwidth" paradigm, whereby incentives are initially strongly against investing in the inevitable and irresistible future. more

World Internet Statistics December 2025

Global internet use has surpassed six billion users, yet stark divides persist between regions, genders and urban-rural populations. Meanwhile, download speeds have surged and smartphones now dominate how people access the web worldwide. more

Internet Governance Calendar During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Internet has become an integral part of our lives. Its growth is dependent upon the interaction of engineers, researchers, and network operators to advance networking technologies, policies, governance mechanisms, and deployment. In this undertaking, the Internet's multi-stakeholder governance has relied heavily upon regular face-to-face meetings and conferences to gather individuals and organizations from numerous participating communities. more

Starlink’s New Business Broadband

Starlink has quietly updated its business broadband offerings. The original plan for businesses was $500 per month with a two-terabyte data cap. If a customer exceeded the data cap, the speed reduced to 1 Mbps for the remainder of the month unless a customer bought additional broadband at $1 per gigabyte. Starlink business comes with a premium antenna from HP at a one-time cost of $2,500. more

Practical Pointers for Paring Domain Name Portfolios

As we enter the new normal, many legal departments have already begun looking for ways to reduce spend even as they are being asked to register COVID-19 domains. IP maintenance fees for patents, trademarks and domains are a natural place to start. While paring back patent and trademark portfolios can yield some significant savings, it's well-known that most corporate domain name portfolios contain registrations that are no longer needed. more

NTAG Chair Blog: The Road Ahead

The next six months will be a pivotal period in ICANN & New gTLD applicant relations. April 2014 will mark one year since the Governmental Advisory Committee - better known as the GAC - issued advice that put nearly 400 applications on hold. The Name Collision issue, while no longer a gate for many applicants, currently puts thousands of second level domain names on hold. March will be a key inflection point for this issue as well. more