Featured Blogs

Entering the Growing IPv4 Market: What Enterprises Should Do Now

With IPv4 addresses fetching up to $30 apiece and IPv6 adoption lagging, companies may be sitting on hidden digital assets. A strategic audit could unlock unexpected revenue and enhance long-term infrastructure planning. more

Would the “Mensch” in the Room Please Stand Up!

Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, in his Internet Governance Outlook 2024, reminded us that 2024, as the years before and future years, will be pivotal for Internet Governance processes. We eagerly await Wolfgang's missives every January, and we trust what we read because we know him, and we trust CircleID. We should be grateful and cherish this example of straightforward, digitally enabled, and trust-based human communication... more

Legacy or Not to Be?

Over the years, most communication service providers will build up their information systems bit by bit. Every so often as new services are required, a new process and vendor product is installed. Several years later, there can be many legacy processes and vendor products chosen and designed by many different people. Generally, each implementation team is diligently aware of these legacy processes and vendor products. But in a lot of cases the whole enterprise architecture becomes very convoluted and complicated. more

Is Zoom’s Server Security Just as Vulnerable as the Client Side?

Zoom programmers made elementary security errors when coding, and did not use protective measures that compiler toolchains make available. It's not a great stretch to assume that similar flaws afflict their server implementations. While Mudge noted that Zoom's Windows and Mac clients are (possibly accidentally) somewhat safer than the Linux client, I suspect that their servers run on Linux.Were they written with similar lack of attention to security? more

African SMEs Are Paying the Price for Global Digital Policy Blind Spots

Global digital policy frameworks often overlook the realities of African SMEs, imposing compliance standards shaped by mature economies and infrastructure, thereby constraining innovation, competitiveness, and inclusion in the digital economy. more

The Geopolitical Protocol: Can QUIC and LEO Satellites Mitigate the Risks of Fragile Subsea Cables?

As geopolitical tensions expose the fragility of subsea cables, Low Earth Orbit satellites and the QUIC protocol promise a more resilient internet by diversifying routes, preserving session continuity, and redefining control over global data flows. more

When the Registry Itself Is Contested: The Unseen Geopolitical Risk in the 2026 gTLD Round

As the 2026 gTLD round opens, applicants face an overlooked geopolitical hazard: what happens if the registry or RIR underpinning their domain collapses under sanctions or war, leaving contracts stranded and accountability elusive. more

Ireland’s Solution to the Rural Divide

The pandemic has given the whole world a pause to consider if we should return to business as usual when the pandemic is behind us. Ireland has a unique reaction and is something that could make sense here. Ireland plans to provide incentives to lure people from cities back to smaller rural towns. Like much of the world, Ireland has seen decades of young people moving to cities to find work, leaving behind shrinking and aging rural towns. more

You Are Invited to Engage in Project Jake: Shaping the Future of DNS Data Governance

Project Jake invites global DNS stakeholders to test JADDAR, a privacy-respecting framework for secure access to registration data, aiming to reduce regulatory fragmentation and modernise domain governance through collaborative, policy-aligned engineering solutions. more

Let’s Not Forget the Lobbyists

Common Cause recently released a report, Broadband Gatekeepers, that describes the influence that lobbyists have on broadband policies. The numbers are staggering -- the ISP industry spent $234 million lobbying the 116th Congress (2019 and 2020). That number is likely understated since the rules on reporting lobbying are lax, and enforcement is almost nonexistent. That number doesn't include the huge amounts of lobbying efforts at State legislatures. more

Shape Internet Policy: Apply for ICANN NomCom’s Council Positions

ICANN's 2026 Nominating Committee invites applications for key policy council roles that shape global Internet governance, offering leadership opportunities in domain regulation, digital rights, and multistakeholder decision-making. Deadline: 18 February 2026. more

Starlink Flexing Its Market Power

Starlink is leveraging its growing dominance with data-hungry AI ambitions, regulatory demands, and space infrastructure plans. A merger with xAI could solidify its position as an unregulated gatekeeper of orbital connectivity and intelligence. more

Do We Need Alignment Between Internet Governance and AI Governance?

A debate over aligning internet and AI governance reveals stark differences in origin, incentives and power. While lessons from ICANN's multi-stakeholder model endure, AI's corporate dominance and geopolitical rivalry demand new, bottom-up approaches. more

The Challenge of Adding Fiber to Poles

An FCC ruling in a dispute between Comcast and Appalachian Power clarifies pole attachment cost rules, but exposes how regulatory delays and uncooperative utilities can slow fiber deployment and raise costs for broadband providers. more

Massive Changes to the Chinese Tech Industry

It was on the cards. For weeks, Jack Ma, the digital tycoon of China, founder of Ant and of e-commerce giant Alibaba (the Chinese Amazon), disappeared off the radar after he was summoned by the Chinese Government and most likely lectured on the fact that his company was out of step with official Chinese policy. Consequently, the Government levied a multi-billion dollar antitrust fine against Alibaba, deleted its popular web browser from app stores and took several other actions against the company. more