Internet Platforms Collecting User Data are Digital Sweat Factories, Says EU’s Data Protection Chief

"The digital information ecosystem farms people for their attention, ideas and data in exchange for so called 'free' services," says Giovanni Buttarelli, the European data protection supervisor. more

What’s Next for gTLD Applicants?

Applicants will have some considerable work to do over the next several months as the Evaluation Panels consider application comments and pose clarifying questions, the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) concludes its review for Early Warnings, and Objections are filed. In addition, Applicants have an opportunity to help ICANN with their timelines by settling string contention as soon as practical. more

Mobile’s Need for Fibre

It was interesting to see that in New Zealand Vodafone had second thoughts and decided to come up with its own proposal of forming a consortium of network operators, rather than simply supporting the government's announcement of its FttH plans. Our analysis of this change of mind is that mobile operators increasingly need fibre networks to sustain the enormous growth in mobile broadband. Most mobile stations around the world are not connected to a fibre network. more

Internet Usage by Time Zone, China Biggest Contributor

Pingdom has conducted a study on how today's two billion internet users around the world are spread over different time zones. Study found two time zones stand head and shoulders above the others in terms of the amount of Internet users they contain: UTC+8, which passes through eastern Asia, and UTC+1, which passes through Europe and Africa. more

Security Through Obscurity as an Institution

One of my staff members pointed me to an article by Mikko Hyppönen in Foreign Policy. In this article Mikko argues that a new top level domain (TLD) like .bank for some reason would prevent on-line fraud, at least partially. Mikko seems to be arguing that with a dedicated TLD registry for financial institutions and a fee high enough to act as an entry barrier you would have a trustworthy bank domains that would be immune against today's phising attempts... more

China Using Cybertechnologies to Expand Their Political Cloud

A few months ago, I mentioned that China’s social code would also be expanded to companies who want to deal with China. I have come across information that shows that China is indeed serious about this. China’s cyberspace regulator has proposed requiring companies pursuing share listings in Hong Kong to apply for cybersecurity inspections if they handle data that concerns national security. Large internet platforms planning to set up headquarters, operating or research centers abroad will have to submit a report to regulators. more

Telecoms Leadership and the State of the Union

Before, during and after his inaugural speech (January 2009) President Obama spoke of the national benefits of broadband, and the changes which have been set in motion in the US telecoms market that were unheard of even a year ago. During the previous administration the incumbent telcos and cable companies had been given more freedom. As a consequence, innovation and competition dwindled and the US was no longer a leader in telecoms... However, since that time, the White House has lost some of its initial leadership. more

ccTLDs Might Be Property

The long-running saga of victims who are pursuing 'state sponsors of terrorism' via ICANN has taken yet another turn. Some time back the Plaintiffs in Rubin & ors -v- Islamic Republic of Iran & ors managed to obtain Writs of Attachment in the Federal court district in Washington (D.C.) courts ordering that the ccTLDs of those respective countries be seized in part-payment of the damages they are owed. ICANN, fairly predictably, became involved at this point. more

Hyperties: “Travel Adaptors” for the Cloud?

I have spent the day here in Berlin attending my second advisory board meeting for the EU research project reTHINK. I'm chewing over what I learnt about the possible future of the telecoms and cloud industry. There has been a decades-long tussle between the communications and computing parts of the ICT industry. Both sides wish to exert power over the digital economy. Sometimes this tussle works for the common good, sometimes not. more

WSIS+10 Consultations at the U.N. Next Week: The Negotiations Are Accelerating

Next Monday the WSIS+10 Second Informal Interactive Consultations will take place at the UN Headquarters in New York. Much of the discussions will focus on what is called the "zero draft", which is the draft outcome document of the overall ten-year Review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). As it stands, the text is an effort from the negotiators to collect multiple perspectives, reconcile differences and hopefully make progress towards consensus before the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting in December. more

United States: 276M Wireless Users, 740B Text messages Recorded for the First Half of 2009

According to CTIA's semi-annual wireless industry report, text messaging continues to be enormously popular in the United States, with more than 740 billion text messages carried on carriers' networks during the first half of 2009 - that is 4.1 billion messages per day. This number is nearly double from last year which was reported at 385 billion text messages. more

Progress in US Telecoms Transformation

The impact of the changes set in motion by President Obama back in late 2008 in relation to the direction the telecommunications are slowly becoming apparent and are taking many Americans by surprise, even many of the experts and analysts in this industry. This has created a lot of noise and confusion, as people are trying to understand what is happening and how it will affect them. more

Ron Paul Caught in Domain Dispute with Supporters

Former U.S. presidential candidate and congressman Rob Paul has filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization against the registrants of RonPaul.com and RonPaul.org in order to gain control of the domains. more

China Sets Up Internet Oversight Body, Has Authority to Investigate and Punish

Caixin reports that the State Council, China's cabinet, has set up an office to regulate internet activity, according to an announcement released on May 4 via an official website. The new department, called the State Internet Information Office, will supervise online content management and process approvals of businesses involved in online news reporting, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua. The new agency is reported to have the authority to investigate and punish online content-providers if necessary. more

The Velocity of Change at SCTE

Engineering wise, how's the industry doing? With that question in mind, hundreds descended on Denver for this year's Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Cable-Tec Expo. That question begs to be answered. Really, can we still separate the engineering 'cool' stuff from the business chic? By that, I mean the business requirements from subscribers who demand communication and entertainment when they want it, where they want it, and on whatever device they want it delivered to. more