Featured Blogs

Broadband Speed and Market Signaling: Strategic Constraints in U.S. ISP Policy

Despite early dismissals from cable giants, consumer demand and real-world use cases proved the value of gigabit broadband. Today, slow uploads and strategic pricing continue to signal an industry reluctant to embrace speed. more

Massive African Internet Outage and the Fragility of Undersea Cables

Eight countries in West Africa reported Internet outages after damage was reported to four different undersea fiber cables. The most affected countries are Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Benin, with additional problems caused in Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon. Lesser impact was felt in South Africa, Senegal, and Portugal. There has been no official word on what caused the problem, but it's likely due to the shifting of the seabed due to seismic activity. more

6 Reasons a Billing Solution Won’t Cut It for Service Fulfillment

You don't always need to dazzle consumers -- but you do need to deliver what they want, when they want it, or else risk being left behind. The crux of service activation is to provide requested services to the subscriber in the shortest possible timeframe. The rise in multi-play service offerings can sometimes make this goal difficult, with service fulfilment involving multiple back-end components, including billing, provisioning, activation, monitoring, and diagnostics, as well as different technology types. more

Engaging Consumers in Cyber Security: It’s Up to You

In a perfect world, consumers recognize authentic emails from fake, update their operating system, browser and anti-virus software, and have a healthy skepticism about the safety of the Internet. The bad guys hate perfect, so we should be working with consumers to stop them. ... Organizations like mine are joining forces to recruit consumers -- who are also your customers and employees -- in the fight against cybercrime. more

Are You Playing Roulette With Your Network Upgrades?

Exponential growth in network bandwidth requirements has created a need for large CAPEX investments for most service providers. Unfortunately, each provider faces limits on all expenditures and must upgrade only what is needed, when it is needed. Nobody should waste time or money by performing unnecessary network upgrades. To avoid needless upgrading, providers must have all the data they can get from their network to guide them through the decision-making process.  more

Internet Society Seeks Nominations for 2026 Board of Trustees

The Internet Society is seeking nominations for its 2026 Board of Trustees. Four seats are open across its global stakeholder communities, offering an opportunity to help steer the future of a trusted, open Internet. more

A Spectrum Crisis?

CTIA, the trade association for cellular companies, published a recent blog titled, "The Looming Spectrum Crisis". The blog quotes a study from Accenture that concludes that a lack of spectrum for 5G is reaching a point of crisis. The Accenture study says that cellular networks will be unable to meet nearly one-fourth of peak-period requests for connection as soon as 2027. more

Internet Governance and End-User Engagement

As the digital landscape continues to evolve at an accelerated pace, the role of end-user participation in Internet governance has never been more crucial. With the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) +20 Review on the horizon, it's time to critically evaluate the progress made and the vast terrains yet to be charted. This topic was recently discussed at the EURALO round table moderated by Pari Esfandiari with panelists Sandra Hoferichter, Olivier Crépin-Leblond, and Lucien Castex, delving into the intricacies of fostering a user-centric, inclusive, and development-oriented information society since the inaugural WSIS meetings in 2003 and 2005. more

Quantifying the Benefits of Telemedicine

There was a recent article in JAMA Network Open, part of the monthly journals of the American Medical Association, that reported on a large study to quantify the benefits of using telemedicine with cancer patients. The study was conducted at National Cancer Institute - Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in Florida from April 2020 through June 2021. The study wanted to quantify the cost savings for patients that were able to conduct visits via telehealth rather than drive to the cancer center. more

What If IANA Transition Was Only a Mirage?

The U.S. government has long had a far-reaching control over the internet's technical center. What will happen now when ICANN's Board puts together a proposal on how to transfer responsibility for certain key functions within the domain name system to the internet community? Last week, ICANN had its 55th conference in Marrakech. The most important result of the meeting is that all parts of the so-called internet community approved that ICANN's Board will send a proposal to the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) which suggests how to transfer responsibility for certain key functions within the domain name system to the internet community... more

RIR Gainers and Leakers: How Policy Choices Shape the Future of the IPv4 Ecosystem

Diverging policies and fee structures among Regional Internet Registries are reshaping the global IPv4 market. RIPE has emerged as a liquidity hub, while others leak resources, risking long-term instability and financial fragility. more

Diagnosing Load Test Errors - Where to Start for Holiday Success

Picture this: you just completed hours of internal Web services preparations with your system administrative team prior to the holidays. You discovered possible points of failure and made appropriate modifications with the expectation of a perfect load test. You take a few minutes to relax, refill the coffee mug sitting in front of you, and connect to the conference bridge where real-time discussion about the load test will occur. Things go well for the first 20 minutes of the test... Then it happens: one of the simulated users logs an error stating that it has timed out. more

What Defines a Stakeholder in Internet Governance? (Netmundial+10 Special)

What defines a stakeholder in Internet governance? Is it a professional occupation, an ideology, or a specific methodology? One of the key themes emerging in the Netmundial+10 event has been that of stakeholder involvement, participation and representation in different IG mechanisms. The numeric increase in contributors to these processes since the original Netmundial is palpable. However, questions remain about the definition of a stakeholder and the premises under which these actors should engage in policy work together. more

The Trade War for Undersea Fiber

A recent article by Joe Brock for Reuters describes a new geopolitical battle over undersea fibers. There are about 400 undersea fiber routes that cross oceans and that connect the world with fiber. This is a huge business, and about 95% of all international broadband traffic passes through the undersea fibers. more

It’s Time to Change the US’ Cuba-Internet Strategy

In a post last week, I advised Cuban President Díaz-Canel that investment in fixed broadband Internet would benefit both the Cuban people and his regime. This week, I've got advice for US President Biden -- don't try to out-pander the Republicans and call President Díaz-Canel's bluff by offering support for fixed broadband. What won't work... more