Access Providers

Is FttH Future-Proof Infrastructure?

Telecoms engineers from all of the major telecoms services and equipment companies around the world agree that FttH is the only future-proof telecommunications technology. So who should we trust - the technology experts or politicians with different agendas? If there had been a division of opinion among these experts it would have been necessary to investigate it; but if they are all in agreement it is safe to follow their advice. more

Smartphones: Too Smart for Mobile Operators?

In June, the net neutrality debate took an unexpected turn when the Netherlands leap-frogged the USA to became the first country to legislate for mobile net neutrality. Business models for fixed and mobile networks must shift toward volume charges. The net neutrality debate has been seen not having much relevance outside the USA because the plight of carriers there was aggravated by unlimited usage. more

Cloud Brokerage and Other Business Opportunities

The market for cloud computing is getting more interesting every day. There is still a long way to go, as the success of cloud computing depends not only on high-speed networks, but also on capacity, robustness, affordability, low latency, ubiquity, security, privacy and reliability. Of course, the ideal infrastructure would be nationwide FttH networks, but obviously we can't wait for that... more

The Network of Probabilities

At eComm, I interviewed on stage Neil Davies, founder of Predictable Network Solutions. (Disclosure: they are a consulting client, we are working together to commercialise their technology.) The transcript of the interview is up on the eComm blog, titled The Internet is Not a Pipe and Bandwidth is Bad. Neil's achievement is a breakthrough advance in the use of applied mathematics to describe behaviours of statistically multiplexed networks. more

The Next Network Policy Battle

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The biggest threat to the Internet innovation ecosystem from network operators is not discrimination but terms of interconnection. Metered billing, bandwidth caps, and wholesale transit fees can all be implemented consistently with net neutrality rules. And in practice, net neutrality will be limited to "legal" content... more

The Future of the Internet Economy: Chapter 2

The OECD held a "high-level" meeting in June 2011 that was intended to build upon the OECD Ministerial on The Future of the Internet Economy held in Seoul, Korea in June 2008. I was invited to attend this meeting as part of the delegation from the Internet Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC), and here I'd like to share my impressions of this meeting. This 2 day meeting, "The Internet Economy: Generating Innovation and Growth", had the objective of exploring a number of current issues in the public policy space... more

“Is DSL Finally Dying?” No!

Jeff Heynan at Infonetics reported a double-digit drop in DSL equipment sales, inspiring Dan O'Shea at Telephony to headline "Is DSL Finally Dying?" Both note that DSL sales in Q1 were actually ahead of the same quarter last year. Yet Dan writes "Fiber is the future." more

RIPE NCC to Conduct Live Measurements for World IPv6 Day

RIPE NCC has announced plans to conduct live measurements for World IPv6 Day on 8th June 2011. The not-for-profit organization has set to measure connectivity to World IPv6 Day participants; "the IPv6 Eye Chart tests visibility of all World IPv6 Day participants and other sites that are already dual-stacked on a single web page." RIPE NCC says the process will help to find out if there are problems accessing these websites, both before and during World IPv6 Day. more

Network Neutrality Becoming a Major Concern for Europe’s Governments

There is no single definition of network neutrality, though generally it is recognised as the principal that there should be no restrictions by fixed and mobile ISPs, or governments and the like, in providing consumers with access to internet networks. Nor should there be restrictions or discrimination against associated content and platforms. A number of European regulators and governments are now making forthright statements defending the principal. more

Building Caribbean Internet Infrastructure… One IXP at a Time

Encouraging the development of Internet-based services and accelerating the development of local content are often touted as noble objectives. It is also widely acknowledged that reaping the benefits of technology is dependent on reducing Internet connectivity and bandwidth costs, improving infrastructure, and improving quality of service to all Internet users. Yet in a region with over 20 million potential Internet users and great ambitions to create a "knowledge-based society" and develop "technology-driven economies", the cost of access remains prohibitively high and there is a glaring absence of critical Internet infrastructure. more

Internet Service Quality Measured from Thousands of Locations

RIPE Atlas, the new active measurements network maintained by the RIPE NCC, gives you a way to easily measure the quality of your Internet services. RIPE Atlas is designed in such a way that it can collect data for analysis from a great number of locations on the Internet. The actual measurement devices, or "probes", are so small that they can be easily deployed in a home environment. more

Dutch ISPs Admit to Using Deep Packet Inspection

Digital Civil Rights in Europe reports: "During an investors day on 10 May 2011 in London, Dutch Internet service provider KPN admitted to using deep packet inspection (DPI) technology, to determine the use of certain applications by its mobile internet customers. Vodafone soon followed with an announcement that it used this technology for traffic shaping. The Dutch minister of Economic Affairs within days announced an investigation into KPN's practices and promised to publish the results within two weeks." more

EU Approval for 4G Technologies to Use GSM Bands - A Boost to Rural Mobile Broadband

The EC recently approved technical rules on how the 900MHz and 1800MHz frequency bands should be utilised for 4G services, including LTE and WiMAX. National governments have until the end of 2011 to implement the decision into national legislation. Restrictions were initially imposed by the 1987 GSM Directive which limited these bands for 2G. more

Chromebooks, Google’s Long-Waited Laptop, to Ship Next Month

Google yesterday dove deep into its Chrome notebook project at its annual Google I/O conference. The company has had the notebook operating system in beta for almost two years now. Google announced the first market-ready Chromebooks from partners Samsung and Acer. The Chrome OS is dependent on the cloud for storage and various web-based applications. The result is a machine that boots in a matter of seconds and carries very little in the line of native hardware. more

IPv6 RIPEness: One Year Later

A year ago, the RIPE NCC introduced IPv6 RIPEness -- a system that rates IPv6 deployment of Local Internet Registries (LIRs)... Now, one year later, the numbers have gone up... In absolute numbers: more than 3,000 LIRs have IPv6 address space. This means that the RIPE NCC has made more than 1,100 IPv6 allocations within 12 months. more