Friday, April 04, 2008
Internet Thought: OECD publishes (my) paper on Fibre
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Internet Thought: Moving graphs of OECD broadband penetration
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
No Broadband means no Mobile Broadband
Monday, March 17, 2008
Two FTTH projects fail and more trouble in The Netherlands
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Free announces stellar numbers, but why is FTTH capex so high?
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Internet Thought: Misconceptions on interconnection
New Post at Internet Thought on submarine fibre
What Submarine Fibre costs
Pretty soon I will be the Submarine fibre blogger if my posts continue the way they do. However I found a very interesting quote throught the ITU's/Strategic Policy Unit Blog. They link to an article in Business Daily Africa, which shows the costs of running the TEAMs project (wiki entry), to run fibre to the east of Africa. Those joining in the project expect an Internal Rate of Return of 32.71 per cent with a pay back of 2.4 years. Not a bad return for a fibre that's supposed to last 25 years. Current prices of connectivity are $5000 dollar per month (satellite only I believe) and the government hopes to go to $500/month in a couple of years. Though UUNET says this can't be achieved.Friday, March 07, 2008
Last Post! Moving to Internet Thought
Thursday, March 06, 2008
OECD Workshop on Fibre Investment and Policy Challenges, Stavanger, Norway, 10-11 April 2008
My session will be: Investment opportunities and challenges
The investment session will look at the opportunities and challenges facing existing communication operators and new market entrants (e.g. utilities) as they work to expand fibre coverage. The session will evaluate situations where investment makes economic sense for private firms and other situations where governments may need to play a more active role. It will look at the track record of various public/private sector partnerships and attempt to find some effective recommendations.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
OECD on Global Opportunities for Internet Access Development
Q.What role do Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) play in the creation of Internet service?
Name withheld
A. IXPs are places where different Internet networks can physically interconnect to send and receive traffic between their networks. Following the commercialization of the Internet they rapidly spread around the world to enable service providers to economically and efficiently exchange traffic locally.
In the absence of an IXP, in any country, local traffic between two service providers will by and large be exchanged internationally. In these cases an email sent from one user to another, in the same country but using different service providers, may be routed via an IXP in New York or Paris rather exchanged domestically. By way of contrast, if that traffic is exchanged locally it can be far less expensive (i.e. avoiding expensive international circuits) and provide better performance for users (e.g. in some countries avoiding satellite circuits with their inherent delays).
Some 90 countries don’t have IXP’s today. There is a map created by the Packet Clearing House which keeps count of countries with and without an IXP: https://prefix.pch.net/applications/ixpdir/summary/
IXPs are relatively inexpensive (e.g. less than USD 40 000 per IXP) to establish and can benefit all stakeholders. For less than USD 4 million each country of the world without an IXP could have one.
and from the report
The next several billion Internet users represent a commercial opportunity rather than a burden and this should be reflected in policy approaches.
Liberalisation of communication markets focuses competitive forces on the expansion of access and affordability for the poor as well as promoting innovation applicable to local circumstances as highlighted by the recent experience of some Asian and African developing countries. Improved access and lower communication costs generate general economic and social benefits. Historically, in markets typified by monopolies and little momentum for access growth, the cost of reaching and maintaining service to low income users was not sustainable.
And on Page 12 there is a explanation of Jipp's Law which used to mean that countries could over and underinvest in telecommunications and which was used to keep investment low and prices high in accordance with the development of the economy in that region.
and on interconnection it sais:
MPP and CPP markets have both exhibited strengths and weaknesses relative to each other in thedevelopment of wireless markets. Both have shown capabilities for innovation and growth. A number of open questions for the future relate to how will both models will deal with convergence with the Internet.Will one model, for example, prove more adept at fostering innovation at the interface with the Internet? How will financial flows between countries be affected by the different termination models? Will one system lead to greater integration in service offerings between countries or networks with the same termination model irrespective of geography? Finally, if termination rates are about compensating networks for costs what explains the vast differences between charges and how will this impact on the competitiveness of countries with high termination rates?
All in all it is a must read on development of networks as it covers many angles on the subject from submarine fibre, to IXP's, to interconnection
Friday, February 29, 2008
idea #1880: Graphical network configuration by drawing visio like drawings
I want to be able to graphically design and/or check how my computer connects to the internet and to other pc's devices in range/on the same network.
Say I'm sitting at home, small home network 4 pc's two wired, two wireless, one pc has printer attached, printer on wireless etc. I would like to be able to draw a visio diagram of what the network looks like and later on be able to check the diagram how it is functioning and if something changed.
So literally I would like to be able to draw a diagram showing my laptop, wireless link to wireless access point, access point wired via 100mbit ethernet to DSL modem. DSL modem is four port switch. Connects to 2 other pc's. One of these pc's is connected via USB to a printer. The wireless access point has a USB port, which has a USB storage attached. Than the system should just be able to figure out where I do my backups, where it can print, how it can connect to the internet etc.
This was something I discussed with Colleagues in an all windows environment this morning. One of my colleagues had trouble configuring the printer. He wanted to tell the computer to connect to "that" printer "there". This required a string like \\foo-bar-boo\baf\boom\bang-123. All he wanted to see was a diagram of the building we were in, go to the sixth floor, see the printers on the lay out and click the left printer on the east wall.
Oh yeah, not even Ubuntu user... just wished all networks could be configured like this.
T-Mobile to sell Orange Broadband, no FMC then.
Maybe Free can buy it and add some 'joi de vivre' to the Dutch market.
Terminate terminating fees: EC Interconnection report released
I just read the Executive Summary and it is a joy to read. I can hear the gnashing of teeth in the boardrooms of the GSM companies already and they would do right to oppose it everywhere they can. (The GSMA already has the a very low quality report on the subject) In my previous job I tried to set this on the agenda and it was interesting to see how NRA's and competition authorities haven't yet thought about the problem. This will give them much to think about .
Currently interconnection with a mobile network is an expensive affair with extremely high terminating costs. These costs in no way reflect an economic or technical reality, but they are very beneficial to the industry. They stop anybody from competing on price, by setting a limit to the price per minute. (Equal to termination costs *(1-market share)) If you price below that limit every call the customer makes will loose the telco money. This is a great way to keep prices high, competition limited to non-price items and since termination fees are set by the regulators telco's can say that it's not their fault. It's a great model from a telco point of view: No price competition, regulators that have to take the blame for setting the fee, difficult economic models that can be attacked on all sides and best of all when you stand to loose money you can try and manipulate the system to bolster your business.
The internet world works with a different model based on peering and transit agreements and no requirements to pay terminating fees. It has some very interesting effects. The price setting of one telco has no influence on the price setting of another. It also means that there is no terminating monopoly, therefore no need for regulators to step in. There is a dynamic market for transit and because of that prices continuously drop. From the point of view of a telco company this is not a very good model, since it introduces competition on price. This might lead to losses, bankruptcies and all that stuff. In the internet world you actually have to know what you're doing or you might lose your business.
The report "The Future of IP Interconnection" has the following edited for size conclusions and recommendations:
- For reasons explained more fully in the report, it is clear that current CPNP arrangements already have a substantial negative effect on welfare, especially for the mobile network, in a number of respects:
• They tend to lead to inefficiently high wholesale termination fees, even when the fees are regulated;
• High wholesale mobile termination fees in effect create collusory incentives to maintain high per-minute (mobile) retail prices;
• The high retail prices depress use of the service to levels far below those that are efficient, and may in some cases depress use below the level of efficient monopoly price for the operators as well. CPNP systems with high mobile termination fees may tend to drive faster take-up of mobile services, which can be positive in developing countries; however, with minor exceptions, further stimulus to mobile adoption for the EU27 is not needed.
We conclude that CPNP arrangements are already problematic today. - We do not advocate an interconnection obligation as regards IP data traffic in general, and we do not see a need to mandate any-to-any peering; however, NRAs must be able to intervene if interconnection breaks down, especially where this is a manifestation of some form of market power.
- Independent of the migration to NGN, we think that societal welfare would be substantially enhanced if mobile termination rates were much lower than they are today, and possibly no higher than the rates that prevail today for fixed termination rates. This could be implemented by (1) accelerating the speed with which the maximum call termination rate declines from year to year under existing CPNP arrangements, so as to reasonably quickly achieve levels much lower than those that pertain today; or (2) by requiring all fixed and mobile operators to eliminate call termination fees altogether; or (3) by permitting negotiated termination fees subject to an obligation that the fees be reciprocal (the same in both directions) between each pair of interconnected (fixed or mobile) networks.
- What we concretely recommend instead is that the Commission mandate that fixed and mobile call termination rates “fast glide” to prespecified target levels over a predefined number of years (somewhere between three and five).
- What we concretely recommend instead is that the Commission mandate that fixed and mobile call termination rates “fast glide” to prespecified target levels over a predefined number of years (somewhere between three and five).
"In regard to network neutrality, we do not advocate major regulatory initiatives at this time. We see merit in the use of Articles 20 and 22 of the Universal Service Directive to require ECSPs to document their practices as regards blocking access to services or degrading the quality of access to services. There may also be merit in enabling NRAs to mandate a minimum quality of service, as the Commission has proposed. NRAs and NCAs need to be prepared to address wilful deviations from network neutrality, especially where an element of economic foreclosure appears to be present; however, the existing regulatory framework for electronic communications probably provides adequate tools, and competition law provides additional mechanisms."
I agree with them that their should be no heavy handed etc. But I do think that the current regulatory framework needs to be tweaked in order to deal effectively with violations of Net Neurtrality. Currently only telco's can appeal to an NRA when something nefarious is happening on the networks. Furthermore it's unclear if the NRA has a stick to hit with, since it can only require parties to negotiate. I therefore belief that we should have a rule that gives NRA's a stick that they can use in case something bad happens and the market can't solve it itself.
All in all, great read and let's see what kind of opposition it will draw.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Google buys trans-Pacific submarine cable Unity
One of the main drivers for wanting your own fibre on certain submarine routes is the pricing strategy of the owners of the submarine fiber. Traditionally these fibres have been owned by incumbent national monopolists. Their pricing was set at a fixed price per Mbit/s. If your banndwidth utilisation grew, their income grew too, though their costs didn’t, leading to excess profits. On the Transatlantic route this problem has been solved by having an oversupply of commercial competitive fiber. The oversupply resulted in a situation I call mutually assured destruction, where everybody went bankrupt and whole networks were sold for pennies.
On the Pacific route it’s mostly incumbent national monopolists owning fibre and they probably have learned from the Atlantic disaster. This means prices don’t drop (or not as quickly as traffic growth) and that means that some parties see an increase in their traffic costs. Google now has solved this by joining a club of submarine fiber owners and not having to worry anymore about the cost of a megabit/s. Google just has to worry about when they will fill up their terabit chunk and when someone will slice through the fibre.
BTW I’m willing to bet Google will join another club on this route to add some much needed redundancy.Friday, February 08, 2008
An Anchor cut Flag Falcon between Dubai and Oman
Both cables will be repaired by Sunday!