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The Blandin on Broadband blog has an informative post by Gary Fields called The 4 D’s of Incumbent Telco Public Policy. Gary writes,

Just recently I had the opportunity to participate in the State of Minnesota Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force, a public policy effort similar to my earlier efforts, but with more official State authority and legislation behind it. I was shocked to see the same strategies and tactics utilized by the provider representatives. At the same time, I have observed actions conducted by the FCC and recognize the same influences. To help others engaged in these important public policy discussions I decided to prepare a summary of the tactics deployed by providers to help facilitate a more constructive effort. With perseverance and diligence we may yet reclaim our global leadership role in telecommunications service and reap the economic benefits that position will bring.

I laughed when I read this post because while the four “D” words are so common in telecommunications (aka telco, telecom) policy, they also work on so many levels for so many people! For example, in a Dilbert world you’d see the four “D” tactics being used to help ineffective people protect their jobs. That said, there are a few more “D” words that are useful in these conversations.

The real lesson here is that if you see anyone engaged in tactics centered around these four “D” words, recognize and understand that these are diversion tactics. Their intent to distract does not diminish your priorities. You may need to respond by being more direct with your questions and needs. This is especially true for telecom policy these days.

Network, Policy broadband, choice, closed content, closed networks, control, debate, distractions, Policy, telecom

Holding a position as an incumbent or primary telecom carrier bestows certain monopoly-ish benefits including limited (or no) competition in connection choices to homes and certain businesses. A person representing a home or business needs a phone or cable connection in order to obtain a connection to the Internet.

This privileged position implies a certain duty of care for their customers by the carriers. That duty, however, is sometimes misplaced. For example, storing customer passwords in the clear, as text that anyone could read, is not a “best practice” in security circles. It came as a shock that TrendMicro wrote of about this practice by noted telecom company Orange (Telecom) in France:

The showstopper however is the vulnerability on the orange.fr website which was posted today. According to 2fingers over at HackersBlog a SQL injection vulnerability was discovered by fellow hacker Unu, that exposes not only the account details of almost a quarter of a million customers, but also their passwords in clear text…

Why is this important? The article continues:

Recently published research showed that 61% of people use the same password for multiple sites, so this kind of compromise represents real risk for many people.

HackersBlog state that they have alerted the folks over at orange.fr but have not yet received a response.

If Orange was truly storing passwords in a clear text file, the rest of their security practices should rightly be questioned. This practice applies to all providers: take care, use best practices to protect your customers.

This post should also serve as a reminder to everyone that’s a customer of an Internet Service Provider: periodically change and protect your passwords.

Identity, Network, Policy, Scenarios best practices, password, plain text, security, telecom

Transforming Global Information and Communication Markets, by Peter Cowhey and Jonathan Aronson, “discusses why we are on the brink of a third transformation of global information and communication markets that requires innovative global governance.” This book is now available through MIT Press or via download!

From the Introduction:

As 2009 nears, the world is in a time of gloom and panic. Will global governance and the global economic order survive? In retrospect, some saw the collapse of the dot com bubble as a portent of the fi nancial meltdown and the collapse of confidence in the future. In the United States there is a dour bipartisan consensus that escalating special interest politics, budget deficits, economic insecurity in the midst of more consumption, environmental and energy policy gridlock, and deep uncertainties about national-security strategy point to intractable problems in the design and conduct of public policy. In other countries the specifi c bill of complaints may differ, but a similar uneasiness is widespread.

Although we can gripe as well as anyone about the world’s follies, this book is more upbeat. Since World War II, a planet-straddling information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure has created a global information economy at an ever-accelerating pace. A radically different model for competition and public policy for this infrastructure was introduced that is far sounder than its predecessor. More remarkably, countries agreed to rewrite the basic international agreements governing commerce for the communications and information infrastructure in a way that makes more sense than the consensus that was forged immediately after 1945.

For once, the transformation in governance and technology is not just a tale of the prosperous states doing better. These changes boosted the economic takeoff of India and China and other emerging powers, and also brought a much greater level of digital connectivity to the poor than anyone dreamed of in the late 1980s. Much remains to be done in poor countries, but an expanding record of successes now exists. For example, banking done over mobile phones (“m-banking”) is taking off faster in developing countries, which lack well-developed financial markets, than in wealthy countries.

This book explains how and why a combination of technological innovation, market strategies, and political entrepreneurship propelled …

Policy, Scenarios digital connectivity, global, globalization, markets, telecom

Has Divestiture Worked?
A 25th Anniversary Assessment of the Breakup of AT&T

This looks like a fascinating–albeit short–event. Three panel discussions and a great lineup of speakers on the agenda. If you’re in New York, I highly recommend going.

UPDATE: If you’re not in New York, here’s the link to the stream! (Excellent, thanks!)

Events, Network, Policy, Scenarios ATT, controlling network, divestiture, Network, telecom

DRCN, Design of Reliable Communication Networks, will be held in Washington DC on Oct. 26-29, 2009. This is the group’s seventh conference, first time in the United States.

About the conference:

DRCN 2009 is a well established forum for scientists, engineers, designers and planners from industry and academia who have interests in reliability and availability of communication networks, end systems and related topics. From equipment and technology for survivability to network management and public policy, through theory and techniques for survivable and robust network and application design, the aim of the conference is to bring together people from those disciplines in a lively forum. We hope you will join us in Washington, D.C., USA during October of 2009.

At this point they’re calling for papers (limited 8 pages, to be published in IEEE Conference Proceedings) by April 1, and proposals for tutorials by May 15.

Events, Network, Policy conference, Internet, reliability, SOHO nets, telecom

eComm, “the world’s leading-edge telecom, Internet communications and mobile innovation event,” is being held in San Francisco, CA, at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel, from March 3-5, 2009. This year’s theme is Defining the Post-Telecom Era, which the conference organizers will do in a series of rapid-fire talks from a wide range of speakers.

You can save $400 on registration fees by registering before the end of January. Additionally, if you wish to save an additional 20%, contact me for details.

Content, Events, Network, Policy communications, conference, Internet, telecom

Freedom to Connect: F2C09

This is David Isenberg’s Freedom to Connect (F2C09) conference, which will be held on March 30-31 in Washington DC. This year’s theme is the Emerging Internet Economy.

I’ve been to a few of his F2C confs and they’re a fascinating mix of Internet and telecom insiders talking on- and off-the record, engaging conversations, topped off by great food and outstanding music. His program for this year is amazing (again).

The registration fee is half-price this month, so it is timely to mention. Who attends and why? From his site:

F2C 2009 presents the people of the Internet who:

• enable economic growth,
• strengthen democracy,
• facilitate creativity and innovation,
• make the Earth greener, and
• lower the barriers that divide people.

F2C 2009 will tell the story of:

• on-line, network-enabled industry and culture, new jobs and sustainable growth
• Burlington VT, where muni fiber enables business, artistic endeavor, and new telemedicine
• how Lafayette LA’s community came together as it built its muni fiber network
• the twin cities of Cedar Falls and Waterloo, Iowa, where one twin has a muni net, and the other doesn’t
• how municipal CIOs are planning for Seattle, Portland and San Francisco municipal fiber networks
• city nets, wired and wireless, that didn’t work — what went wrong and what that teaches
• what Obama’s infrastructure and economic recovery plans mean for tomorrow’s network
• and more…

Events, Network, Policy, Scenarios collaboration, conference, economy, F2C09, fiber, telecom, telecommunications, Washington DC

A significant telecom conference is coming up that will be of interest to serious insiders. It’s about creating change, collaborating and exploring new business opportunities, and growing in ways not yet defined. I’m blogging this conference, so check back for an extended post.

Coming up in a few weeks (January 18-21) in my neighborhood is the Pacific Telecom Council‘s 2009 Conference: Collaborating for Change. I’ve heard that this is THE telecom conference to attend if you’re interested in collaborating with others in related fields.

From their website:

Change brings challenges and these challenges are the focus of PTC’09. Services have become far too complex to be developed and offered by a single integrated service provider. Today’s telecommunication services and applications would not be possible without unprecedented collaboration between carriers, software developers, researchers and equipment makers, both in their home countries and across borders.

While challenges remain, change brings many new opportunities as well. PTC’09 will explore these and the strategies and partnerships that bring them to market.

No event embraces the spirit of collaboration more completely than PTC.  For 31 consecutive years, telecommunications companies, equipment and software developers, content and media services providers, vendors, investors, academics and researchers, policy makers and civil society representatives have met each January in Hawaii to forge alliances, negotiate agreements, and to learn from one another’s experiences.

I hope to see some of you there. Read more…

Events, Network, Policy, Scenarios collaboration, conference, economy, fiber, Hawaii, Internet, PTC09, satellite, telecom, telecommunications

The New America Foundation kindly recorded a meeting in which a coalition of diverse interests and groups gave a call to action. It’s nearly an hour and a half long, and worth the time to listen and learn.

UPDATE: The US Broadband Coalition’s Jim Baller follows up with a 30 minute piece from C-SPAN, entitled The Communicators: Broadband Lobbying Efforts that informs about upcoming steps to accomplish the broadband strategy.

Network, Policy Anne Veigel, broadband, C-SPAN, choice, Communicators, control, Internet, James Baller, Policy, strategy, telecom, US Broadband Coalition

Friend and telecom Prosultant David Isenberg wrote an interesting post on this topic some time ago. He just published it on his isen.blog.

In the article, David reminded me that we are generally unaware of how our data is being “routed” to certain data centers where certain Three Letter Acronyms, arms of the U.S. Government, had access to everything that was passing over the network. What I found most interesting about this article was the candid way that David illustrated how things work:

I had one experience that indicates the potential success of such a modus operandi. I once got a call from a staff member of a U.S. Senator who somehow knew that I — a lowly Member of Technical Staff — was working on a project that included a facility in his state. The Senator needed a favor from AT&T. He asked me if I would help. I told my boss; a call from a Senator is a big thing. I don’t know who my boss talked to, but the Senator got his favor.

In this case, there wasn’t anything that smacked of corruption or illegality; all I’m saying is that things happened a lot faster than they would have if they’d gone through normal channels. I was a bit too skeptical to be classified as a “friendly.” Then again, this was an isolated incident, not a systematic program.

David ends his post with a very plausable Scary Scenario. It’s just a matter of time.

Content, Network, Policy, Scenarios ATT, illegal wiretapping, politics, telecom, US, Verizon, wiretapping