Antony Van Couvering Interviews Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows (Video)

Antony Van Couvering, CEO of Minds + Machines, continues his series of in-depth talks with leading figures from the domain name industry with this video interview of Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows, filmed recently at ICANN 49 in Singapore. more

Space-Ground Optical (Laser) Communication

SpaceX is equipping its new satellites with inter-satellite laser links (ISLLs). They now have over 8,000 optical terminals in orbit (3 per satellite) and they communicate at up to 100 Gbps. The other low-Earth orbit Internet service providers will follow SpaceX's lead. more

5 Common Misconceptions New Registries Have About Domain Revenue

It is wonderful to see the floodgates open and see so many new gTLDs launch -- 417 delegated as of October 4th. As registry senior management's focus switches to operational matters post launch, it is now time to consider how the new registries will deal with revenue recognition and its impact on financial reporting. This is primarily the CFO's responsibility, but senior management must be mindful that improper domain revenue accounting will lead to corporate reputational damage. more

Nationalizing the Imaginary 5G Network?

To put it bluntly, the proposal cited in Axios story on "Trump team considers nationalizing 5G network" doesn't make sense on a number of levels. The real danger comes if this indeed represents the NSC's failure to understand Internet style connectivity. The proposal may just be the work of an NSC staffer who accepted all the 5G hype as if it were real. I credit the Axios article for having some skepticism... more

Getting a Handle on IDNs

Internationalized Domain Names or IDNs are back in the news. ICANN recently released a document entitled "Proposed Final Implementation for IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process"... In a nutshell, ICANN has now offered a path toward authorizing the adoption of ccTLDs in many countries' native languages. This marks a welcome advance for millions of Internet users who do not speak English or who do not use another language covered by ASCII. But with this advance comes some concerns. more

Looking Ahead: ICANN’s Upcoming Policy on DNS Abuse Mitigation

ICANN is finalising a policy to curb DNS abuse, aiming to preserve internet stability while defending freedom of expression. With regulatory pressure mounting, the multistakeholder model faces a critical test. more

Did Broadband Deregulation Save the Internet?

Something has been bothering me for several months, and that usually manifests in a blog at some point. During the COVID-19 crisis, the FCC and big ISPs have repeatedly said that the only reason our networks weathered the increased traffic during the pandemic was due to the FCC's repeal of net neutrality and deregulation of the broadband industry. Nothing could be further from the truth. more

A Closer Look at China’s Call for an End to the Internet Governance Forum

China as a nation with a population of 1.3 billion people, represents over a fifth of the whole world and for this reason, if not for any other, we need to sit up and listen to anything that China says, though a lot of what China says may be disagreeable. China unambiguously stated its position during the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Open Consultations at Geneva on May 13. On this instance, I consider the views expressed by China largely respectable, but needs to be bridged in some areas. more

gTLD Contention Set Auctions: Private Auction Alternatives

Open ascending price or English auctions are the oldest and most common auction form. Derived from the Latin words augere and auctus, "Auction" means to 'augment' via 'increasing'. While there are many theoretical types of auctions (ascending, descending, sealed-bid, second-highest bid, etc.) in this post we will focus on the two main types of auctions provided by Right of the Dot and Cramton. more

Finland’s Broadband USO an Inspiration for Europe

Europe's governments are increasingly acting on the popular belief that the Internet should be a basic right, and that citizens not disposed to using IP-based services should nevertheless have access to its infrastructure. As such, governments either have already introduced legislation to this effect or are in the process of doing so. First off the block was Switzerland: from January 2008 Swisscom's 10-year renewed USO (universal service obligation) has included the provision of broadband at a regulated price. more

Global Internet Traffic to Quadruple by 2015, Reaching 966 Exabytes Per Year

Cisco predicts that the number of network-connected devices will be more than 15 billion, twice the world's population, by 2015. In its Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2010-2015) report released today, the company also predicts the total amount of global Internet traffic to quadruple by 2015 and reach 966 exabytes per year. more

ICANN and Iraq: Suffering Along

I thought of ICANN yesterday when reading about the devolution of the Iraqi Governing Council, which managed to unite for just a moment to approve a constitution with about the half-life of lutetium. ICANN and the IGC: two institutions put in charge of ill-behaved constituencies and stuck in chronic failure mode. Could anything be learned by examining them at arm's length? Indeed, different as they are, their histories contain several common elements... more

WCIT Prep Dénoument?

I'm sitting in the Popov Room of the ITU Tower in Geneva, the room is quiet, the atmosphere placid, chairs are empty. The final meeting of the CWG WCIT prep WG has just concluded its work and the chair will be reporting to the Council the results of our work. I find myself strangely calm and looking forward to my next week, to be spent in Prague... Should you choose to read through the documents, and they are lengthy at approximately 375 pages, you might think that a number of the proposals were directed at the Internet. more

IPv6: Smart Investments and Smart Grids

IPv6 a major catalyst for billions of dollars worth of deals? The Intel announcement of their McAfee purchase for 7.7 billion seems to indicate as much when Dave DeWalt , McAfee CEO is quoted as saying during a conference call; "If we look at the transition from IPv4 to IPv6, we're seeing an explosion of billions of devices and they all need to be secured." more

Net Neutrality Again!

I had hoped to take a longer break from the theme of Net Neutrality, but a piece on Om Malik's blog by Daniel Berninger seems to be screaming for a reply. Berninger hails from Tier 1 Research; his credentials show a close association with Jeff Pulver's Free World Dialup, and hence a piece that is sympathetic to the 'Save the Internet' movement. His legalistically styled piece attempts to suggest that, in the absence of conformance to network neutrality principles, telephone companies will lose their common carrier status and therefore should lose their access to low cost rights-of-way. Good try, Dan... more