ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010
Beyond the Internet? - Innovations for
future networks and services
CHALLENGES THE INTERNET POSES
TO THE POLICYMAKER
Arun Mehta
President, Bidirectional Access Promotion
Society, New Delhi
arun.mehta@bapsi.org
Pune, India, 13 – 15 December 2010
WHY THERE IS NO "BEYOND" THE
INTERNET - 1
We lack a proper definition of the
Internet. Neither it, nor the one
"beyond" (shall we call it Net 2.0?),
can be captured in narrow technical
terms: the Internet is also a social
and political space, as will Net 2.0 be
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
2
WHY THERE IS NO "BEYOND" THE
INTERNET - 2
The regulation of Net 2.0 will throw
up problems that are practically
insurmountable, hugely painful for all
involved, not least the fingers of
policymakers
Control over the digital space has
been sought in various ways by the
telecom establishment before, and
invariably failed
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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WHAT IS THE INTERNET?
Technically:
For a Policymaker:
“A worldwide
“Often confused with the
network of
World Wide Web, the
computer networks
term Internet actually
that use the TCP/IP
refers to the combined
protocol to
collection of academic,
exchange
commercial, and
information”
Government Networks
(University of
connected over
Princeton)
international
telecommunication
backbones and routed
using IP-addressing.”
(University of Chicago)
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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THE INVENTORS OF TCP/IP:
"feel strongly that efforts should be
made at top policy levels to define the
Internet. It is tempting to view it
merely as a collection of networks and
computers… Governments are passing
legislation pertaining to the Internet
without ever specifying to what the law
applies and to what it does not apply...
This area is badly in need of
clarification.” (Kahn and Cerf, 1999)
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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WE HAVE NO STRATEGY FOR
MIGRATING COMMUNITIES
e.g. Linux: started on the Internet in
1991, also distributed, supported and
developed on the Internet.
The Linux community includes the
government of Brazil, and the
education system of Kerala.
Likewise Wikipedia, Facebook, Torrent
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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WE HAVE NO STRATEGY FOR
MIGRATING COMMUNITIES
What would a new network mean for
communities such as Linux, that rely
crucially on the Internet for survival?
You would not only have to migrate
software, but also plenty of people
and institutions.
Who would pay for all this?
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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HOW MANY REGULATORS HAVE A
STAKE IN NET 2.0?
In India, we had a
hard time just
bringing
communications
and broadcasting
under one
regulatory body
and convergence
legislation.
But if electronic
banking is involved, you
need the Reserve Bank
at the table too.
Similarly, Censor Board,
and regulators involved
with different sorts of
issues, e.g. gender,
disability, minors,
minorities, monopolies,
crime,... multiplied by
the number of countries
which regulate these
matters differently.
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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THE INTERNET IS A PUZZLING
POLITICAL ANIMAL
Nobody "in charge" or even the power
to commit anything on its behalf.
It treats "censorship as damage and
routes around it" (John Gilmore)
Multiple companies own bits and
pieces of it, with no control over what
information, or even what kind, flows
over it.
How would Net 2.0 be different?
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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HISTORY: THE 1980's AND '90s
Conventional
telecom then
was all
powerful like
Rome, the
Internet like
tiny Gaul
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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MINITEL, BUT SADLY ONLY IN FRANCE
As early as the early 1980s,"Minitel
was used for online banking, travel
reservations, information services,
online grocery shopping and
messaging services”, controlled by
France Telecom, generated huge
revenues
How ironical, if the design of Net 2.0
ends up looking a lot like Minitel?
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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ITU/ISO EMAIL STANDARD X.400
Until the turn of the century, X.400
did not run on TCP/IP, only the newly
designed OSI networks
Hence effectively, its introduction as
the new global email standard was an
effort to move beyond the Internet.
Within years, all companies offering
X.400 email in India vanished.
Today, X.400 is only used in niches
(e.g. EDI), largely on TCP/IP, not OSI
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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INTERNET V/S CONVENTIONAL
TELECOM: ROUND 1 (X.400)
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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ROUND 2: THE DOT-COM BOOM
Following the X.400 debacle,
telecommunication companies
invested a lot of money into the
Internet. Part went into purchasing
useless dotcoms, and part into vast
quantities of optic fiber: hundred of
thousands of km in the USA alone.
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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OBELIX AND CO.
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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THE INFORMATION SOCIETY AND
INTERNET GOVERNANCE
The outcome of WSIS Geneva and the
huge international process leading
upto it: two committees!
–
–
One, on development, had no money
Other dealt with Internet Governance,
hardly the most serious problem the
information society was facing
Outcome of WSIS Tunis: a decision to
continue discussing, under the IGF
(Internet Governance Forum) umbrella
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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ROUND 3: DISCUSSIONS ONGOING
NOT LEADING ANYWHERE
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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INSTEAD OF LOOKING BEYOND THE
INTERNET, WHAT SHOULD THE ITU DO?
Help the Internet with problems it finds
hard to address, support it
1) Reduce spam and malware: needs a
coordinated effort by governments,
together with large telecommunications
companies (i.e. ITU members). The
former hate spyware, the latter the
wasted bandwidth.
– 2) Address access issues: Every human
being must be allowed to join the
information society, including those who
are
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec
2010: illiterate, disabled, poor.
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ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
LEADERSHIP IN THE MIDST OF THE
INFORMATION REVOLUTION
Perhaps the ITU could learn from the
politician Alexandre Auguste LedruRollin, who was steeped in the
lessons of the French Revolution:
“There go my people! I better
find out where they are going, so
I can lead them there.”
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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CONCLUSION: LOOKING "BEYOND THE
INTERNET" IS A BAD IDEA BECAUSE:
• We do not know what that is
Expect huge political and social problems
With little idea also of who will implement,
and how, we need to ask why
Historically, attempts have been made by
the telecom establishment to look beyond
the Internet, buy it out, or come to terms
with it. All have failed
The ITU could use its resources better
Pune, India, 13 – 15 Dec 2010:
ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 – Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services
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