The Need for Major Structural Changes

In keeping with the discussion that I have been involved in over the last decade, 'structural changes' should be today's key phrase - not just for the telecoms sector but for every sector in our economies. It has been clear for a long time that structural change is well overdue. It doesn't really matter which sector you pick, you will see that some of these reform debates go back at least a decade - and often longer -- in healthcare, education, environment, energy, finance and banking and media. more

Norwegian Cruise Line Joins the Fleet of Cruise Liners to Adopt Starlink Satellite Broadband Service

Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has announced the start of the trial for Starlink, a satellite broadband service, on one of its ships - the Norwegian Breakaway. NCL plans to potentially deploy the service across eight cruise ships this year. This includes the three new additions to its fleet - Vista, Norwegian Viva, and Seven Seas Grandeur. If the trials are successful, NCL will equip these vessels with Starlink terminals. more

Blaming Technology and the Rule of Law

Imagine that Ford was held responsible every time one of its Mustangs broke the speed limit. Imagine that the company responded by limiting the speed of its vehicles to 65 MPH, or that the company was required by the government to report every speeding car to highway patrol. It sounds far-fetched, but is actually a good metaphor for the way that many want technology companies to respond to infractions. more

Call for “ISP Point of Contact” Database for Neutrality “Event” Concerns

When I initiated NNSquad (Network Neutrality Squad), one of my primary concerns was that many seemingly reportable "events" that can occur on the Internet -- and that might seem on their face to be network neutrality "violations" -- might actually be caused by innocent technical issues related to ISP operations, testing anomalies, or misinterpretation of test or otherwise observed data. Analysis of these situations -- which may invoke security and privacy concerns -- can be quite complex, and without a reasonably complete picture of events can also be considerably problematic... more

Dealing With Non-Compliant Infringers – “The Other 50%”

I often read marketing material from Online Brand or Content Protection vendors, especially some of the newer ones, that make IP rights enforcement sound very straightforward. In some scenarios, given the correct processes are followed, this can be the case - using eBay's VERO program or similar offerings from the major legitimate platforms, counterfeit listings can be removed very quickly. more

ICANN Denies .GAY’s Request for Reconsideration

ICANN's Board Governance Committee (BGC) today released its comments on recent reconsideration request of dotgay LLC's new top-level domain .GAY application. Kevin Murphy from Domain Incite reports: "ICANN has refused dotgay LLC's latest appeal against adverse .gay decisions, and has taken the unusual step of preemptively defending itself against probably inevitable accusations from gay right groups." more

Widespread Network Outages Disrupt AT&T Services Across the US

In a significant service disruption early Thursday, AT&T's network experienced widespread outages, affecting cellular service and internet connectivity for users across the United States. According to the tracking site Downdetector, the issues began around 4 a.m. ET, with over 32,000 reports of outages, which surged to more than 71,000 by 8 a.m. ET. more

Why This Domain Expert Has Stopped Talking About Domain Names

I'm lucky enough to spend my working life helping some of the world's largest brands drive their .brand TLD projects. The excitement and the challenges of this space stem largely from the fact that this is a new innovation; and when you're working with something truly groundbreaking, naturally there's an element of "learning as you go." And I'm not afraid to admit, sometimes we get things wrong. more

Experts Urge Immediate Halt on Development of “Giant” AIs

More than 1,000 experts in the artificial intelligence community have called for an immediate pause on the development of "giant" AI systems like GPT-4 for at least six months. more

Mobile Consolidation - A Threat to Competition

The global financial crisis and the very rapid growth in mobile broadband, thanks to smartphones, have combined to create havoc in the mobile market. On the one hand, we see that customers, especially those in countries seriously affected by the GFC, such as Southern Europe and Ireland, have reduced their mobile use, with the result that there has been a significant drop in Average Revenue per User (ARPU). On the other hand, phenomenal growth has taken place in mobile broadband, but without a significant increase in ARPU... more

5G Reality Check: February 2020

Given all the clueless, nonsensical assertions coming out of Washington these days about 5G and purported leadership, it seemed time to do another reality check. It was timely at the moment because, with the Coronavirus concerns, the massive 3GPP 5G industry collaboration engine switched to virtual meeting mode for February. Thus – with travel barriers to participation completely absent – the participation metrics represent a real litmus test for even nominal engagement in global 5G industry collaboration and technology development. more

Have You Reviewed Your Domain Lock Portfolio?

Domain names give your intellectual property visibility, as well as provide function for your company's infrastructure. Vital domain names are simply too important to be left exposed. To protect them, you can add extra layers of security to your digital brand with easy, secure, server-level protection in addition to multi-level locks that combat domain name system (DNS) hijacking and protect against unauthorized changes and deletions to your critical domain names. more

U.S. Department of Justice Demands IP Addresses, Other Details on Visitors to Trump Resistance Site

The Los Angeles-based hosting company, DreamHost on Monday revealed that for the past several months it has been dealing with a search warrant from the Department of Justice pertaining to a website used to organize protests against President Trump. more

The Popularity of .co (not .com) Domain Name Disputes

One of the most popular top-level domains under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is not even a gTLD (generic top-level domain). It's a ccTLD: .co, the country-code top-level domain for Colombia, in South America. Based on statistics at WIPO as of this writing, 29 .co domain names have been the subject of UDRP disputes this year, making it the most-disputed ccTLD under the popular domain name dispute policy. more

Internet Society Activities at EuroDIG 2016: Trust, Collaborative Security, Zero Rating and More…

Over the next two days (9-10 June), the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) takes place in Brussels, Belgium. With a theme of "Embracing the digital (r)evolution", EuroDIG has a full agenda and Internet Society staff will be participating in many aspects of the programme. For us, a primary focus will be at 11:30 CEST (UTC+2) on Thursday, June 9, when our President and CEO Kathy Brown opens the first Plenary with a keynote speech. more