Monetising Solutions for the Telcos

Developments in the telecommunications industry and the broader digital economy have opened up many new markets over the last few decades. Telecoms has changed from a more or less standalone, horizontally-organized industry to one that has become a key facilitator in a range of vertical markets. The keyword that is used to indicate that change is "smart." We are talking about smart transport, smart energy, smart cities and so on. more

More Cracks Appearing in Mobile Market

When I wrote the BuddeComm analysis on the introduction of Apple's iPhone I commented that the most significant element of this event was that it would begin to create cracks in the flawed business models of the mobile operators, who are desperately hanging on to their closed networks very much like the fixed operators were fighting tooth and nail against opening up their networks. We have seen that the fixed operators have largely lost this battle and we predict that the future of the mobile networks will be no different... more

Time for Outrage! (continued)

When the scale of global surveillance carried out by the NSA (USA) and by the GCHQ (UK) was exposed by Edward Snowden through The Guardian, people around the world were shocked to discover how two established democracies routinely resort to methods that they have long deplored -- and rightly so -- in dictatorships, theocracies and other single-party arrangements. In a previous article, I lamented the fact that by carrying out this surveillance on an unprecedented scale, the US and the UK are, in fact, converging with the very regimes they criticize. more

Cuba Starts Providing Internet on Mobile Phones

Cuba, one of the least connected countries, has started providing internet on the mobile phones of select users as it aims to roll out the service nationwide by year-end. more

Canada’s Telecom Regulator to Uphold and Strengthen Commitment to Net Neutrality

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today announced that it will strengthened its commitment to net neutrality. more

U.S. Internet Speed Growth Too Slow, Will Take Over 100 Years to Catch Up With Japan

According to a recent study by Communications Workers of America's (CWA's), United States has not made significant improvement in the speeds at which residents connect to the Internet. U.S. continues to fall far behind other countries. "...between 2007 and 2008, the median download speed increased by only four-tenths of a megabit per second (from 1.9 mbps to 2.3 mbps), and the median upload speed barely changed (from 371 to 435 kbps). At this rate, it will take the United States more than 100 years to catch up with current Internet speeds in Japan." more

Significant Increase in Registry Locked Names Across Top 500 Most Highly-Trafficked Sites

A recent study conducted by Brandsight has revealed that 28% of the top 500 most-highly trafficked sites now employ registry locking. In contrast, only 15% of the top 500 most highly-trafficked sites were leveraging registry locking in 2013. Back in 2013, only 356 of the top 500 most-highly trafficked sites could be registry locked, but that number has also risen significantly so that now 396 of the top 500 most-highly trafficked sites are eligible. more

Holding Trump Accountable Under Public International Law

Trump and his enablers are well known to disrespect if not disdain legal systems, including public international law. He has effectively abrogated every treaty instrument relating to international communications at the whim of a tweet. His behavior has dishonoured the USA in a way that will take years to remedy. Trump's actions to ban access to Android Operating System updates on Chinese products have significantly harmed cybersecurity worldwide. more

Going Going Gone: ICANN Auction Rules Cause a Stir

The applicant community is working its will on the rules for generic top-level domain (gTLD) auctions published by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). But, as always, ICANN is no pushover. ICANN posted the new gTLD auction rules for public comment last month after community outcry over the preliminary rules during ICANN's Public Meeting in Buenos Aires in November. more

US House Subcommittee to Hold Hearing for ICANN’s New TLD Rollout

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "The House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet will hold an 'ICANN Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Oversight Hearing' on Wednesday May 4 at 10am local time. The hearing has been called at the direction of the committee's chairman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte." more

Study Links Half of “Rogue” Online Pharmacies to Two Domain Name Registrars

Brian Krebs reporting in Krebs on Security: "Half of all 'rogue' online pharmacies -- sites that sell prescription drugs without requiring a prescription -- got their Web site names from just two domain name registrars, a study released today found. The findings illustrate the challenges facing Internet policymakers in an industry that is largely self-regulated and rewards companies who market their services as safe havens for shadowy businesses." more

The Coming of the ADC

In the previous decade and the beginning of this one, Server Load Balancing (SLB) reigned supremely in the web data center. Lately, a new class of products is replacing the older load balancers. These products are known as Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) and in the following paragraphs I will share my thoughts on the reasons for that. more

What’s in Your DNS Query?

Privacy problems are an area of wide concern for individual users of the Internet -- but what about network operators? Geoff Huston wrote an article earlier this year concerning privacy in DNS and the various attempts to make DNS private on the part of the IETF -- the result can be summarized with this long, but entertaining, quote. more

What is a Security Mechanism?

Orin Kerr recently blogged about a 9th Circuit decision that held that scraping a public web site (probably) doesn't violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)... On its surface, it makes sense – you can't steal something that's public – but I think the simplicity of the rule is hiding some profound questions. One, I believe, can most easily be expressed as "what is the cost of the 'attack'"? That is, how much effort must someone expend to get the data? Does that matter? Should it? more

Speaking up for the Internet

For most of this year governments from outside the G8 have not wavered from their essential themes on the Internet: they regard it as a shared resource that works in part as a result of their own investment in infrastructure, they want to be included in its governance through a decision-making process that is transparent, accessible and, in broad character, multilateral, and they want to be able to trust it and know that as much as it is a tool of growth for others, it can also be for them. more