It's clear that even before the turn of this century that the big telcos largely walked away from maintaining and improving residential service. The evidence for this is the huge numbers of neighborhoods that are stuck with older copper technologies that haven't been upgraded. The telcos made huge profits over the decades in these neighborhoods and ideally should not have been allowed to walk away from their customers. more
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
According to various sources, Cuba is launching its first public wireless service in the city of Santiago de Cuba. However, at the reported cost of $4.50 an hour, it will be far too expensive for most Cubans with average salary of $20 a month. Last year, 3.4 percent of homes in Cuba had Internet access -- one of the world's lowest rates, according to international technology authorities. more
In an article entitled "Celebrating and Protecting the Global Internet" in Bloomberg BNA, US Ambassador Sepulveda and US Commerce Dept Assistant Secretary Strickling defend the transition of IANA oversight to the global multistakeholder community. more
Internet's oldest domain name registrar, Network Solutions, today announced that it has agreed to be acquired by Web.com. Network Solutions was founded in 1979 and pioneered the domain name registration business. In addition to domain name registration, the company also offers services such as web site design and hosting, e-commerce solutions, online security products, SSL certificates, and search engine marketing and optimization. According to Network Solutions, the company manages over 7 million domains, 3 million email boxes and more than 400,000 web sites. more
John Crain has been named ICANN's new Chief Security, Stability and Resiliency Officer. In this newly created position Crain will assume the responsibilities of Jeff Moss, who announced he is stepping down from his position as Chief Security Officer at the end of the year. more
After a seven-year long process of transferring Rwanda's Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), ".rw" from Belgium, finally Rwandans can now manage their national identity, reports AllAfrica. more
Analysis from Point Topic's recent reports on global broadband tariffs has revealed a significant gap in residential and business tariffs worldwide. Clearly businesses are paying more for their services than residential consumers but the relative differences in the ratios is more marked than might be expected. The first thought is that they are paying for more bandwidth and that is true to an extent. more
Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab has announced the closure of its U.S. division, resulting in layoffs for its U.S.-based employees. The decision follows a recent U.S. Commerce Department ban on the sale of Kaspersky software, effective from July 20, due to national security concerns. more
Shalini Singh reporting in the Hindu: "The raging controversy over possible excessive state regulation of the internet based on the IT Rules 2011 is now likely to be dwarfed by discussions in Geneva later this week over India's proposal to the United Nations General Assembly, for government control of the Internet... In its proposal submitted to the General Assembly in New York on October 26, 2011, India has argued for a radical shift from the present model of multi-stakeholder led decision-making, to a purely government-run multilateral body..." more
Google has launched a "Take Action" page to urge people to speak out amidst the gathering of the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU) taking place next month in Dubai to update global telecom rules for the first time since 1988. Google and others have raised concern as some countries may see this as an opportunity to set up new rules for the internet. more
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed on Wednesday a do-not-track list for the Web. "The proposal, which would allow consumers to opt out of having their online activities tracked, was included as part of the agency's preliminary report on consumer privacy," reports Gautham Nagesh in The Hill. "The report is intended as a framework for any potential privacy legislation from Congress but stops short of explicitly calling for a legislative solution." more
Responding to market demand for more energy-efficient datacenters, Sun Microsystems, Inc. has announced the completion of its new Broomfield, Colo. datacenter. The largest datacenter consolidation project undertaken in the company's history is expected to save more than $1 million in electricity costs and 11,000 metric tons of CO2 per year in Broomfield. The new Broomfield datacenter follows similar Sun projects completed in Blackwater, UK, Santa Clara, Calif. and Bangalore, India in August 2007. more
According to recent reports, the total number of new domain name registrations in the third quarter of 2008 reached 11.5 million, pushing the total number of domain names registered in total across all Top-Level Domain Names (TLDs) to 174 million. While the growth continues, the newly released Domain Report by Verisign, indicates a "a decline of new registrations by 2%t from second quarter and 2% from third quarter 2007, driven by declines in both gTLD and ccTLD growth." The decline in new domain name registrations are found to be partly due new changes made by Google to its AdSense program -- the report explains... more
Like many foreigners, I follow U.S. politics closely. What happens in Washington, D.C. on trade, economics, foreign policy, and security matters can often have ripple effects across the world. This is also true with respect to internet policy, and like many who work in the internet industry, I am getting increasingly concerned by some of the news coming out of Washington. more