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December 26, 2007

The Global Nature of Internet Communication

We all know that the Internet is a global medium that spans geographic boundaries. Yet countries around the global have taken vastly different approaches to regulating Internet communications which in some cases may prevent consumers from taking advantage of its benefits.

That is why I want to highlight two key developments that may help accelerate positive policies around the globe:

New Coalition Formed to Educate European Policymakers About Forward Thinking Polices to Enable Internet Communication

First, the VON Coalition has launched a new VON Coalition Europe to do in Europe what it has done so well in the U.S. – help to advance policies that enable consumers and businesses to enjoy the full promise and potential of Internet communications. This group is embarking on an effort to educate European policymakers about forward-thinking policies and believe that with the right public policies, Internet-enabled communications, such as VoIP, can increase competition, provide a platform for innovation, drive broadband deployment, and enable economic growth.

The recent release of formal Proposals by the European Commission to amend the existing regulatory framework for communications marks the start of a wide ranging review by the Council of Ministers and European Parliament. As we enter this era of rapid and potentially far reaching regulatory change, industry leaders have come together under one roof to create an authoritative voice for the Internet-enabled communications industry. The Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition Europe will help to educate, inform and promote responsible government policies that enable innovation and the many benefits that Internet voice innovations can deliver.

I commend them for taking this step. Its especially important because some European regulators have mistakenly suggested rules for web based VoIP services that aren’t replacements for home telephone services. While there is a growing recognition that VoIP services that are marketed and sold as a replacement for a home phone services should have to meet some basic social obligations, I am troubled that some are considering applying tradition telephone rules to services that aren’t home phone replacements.

For example, the European Regulatory Group (ERG) – made up of European member state regulators -- recently published its Common Position with regard to VoIP. The final draft views a wide range of Internet communication as traditional “telephony service” and suggests the application of traditional telephone rules to the Internet – including services that link web sites to the PSTN.

What does all this mean? Well it could affect this very blog. For example, if I include a click to communicate link on this blog (like this: Click here to call the VON Coalition) then my blog (even though it is on server in the U.S.) could suddenly have to abide by a whole range of different (and perhaps conflicting) European legacy telephone rules -- from providing emergency access to ensuring quality of service. I am proud that this blog has a broad global readership, but I don’t always know who is reading this blog, in which countries you are accessing it, nor who may be clicking on the link above. Furthermore, if I had to comply with 27 sets of potentially conflicting rules from the 27 countries that make up the European Union just to include such a link on my blog, it surely will make me think twice before making these innovative services available even here in the U.S. It’s exactly these reasons that on a global Internet we need to think through this future before reflexively applying old rules to innovative services just because they have the potential to make a call.

And that leads me to an important second development:

VON Coalition Calls on Trading Partners to Stop Blocking Consumer Access to VoIP

While some countries could inadvertently squelch services by applying legacy rules, other countries are just outright blocking consumer access to Internet voice communication. So the VON Coalition in the U.S. has filed papers with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) charging several trading partners with creating market barriers and prohibitions that are stifling Internet based communication technologies like VoIP. The VON Coalition asks USTR to help open markets to these new technologies. (see http://www.von.org/usr_files/Intl%20--%20USTR%201377%202007%2012-21-07%20final.pdf)

Some countries see VoIP’s potential and have embraced it to unleash new consumer and business benefits never before possible. But as broadband penetration continues to escalate around the globe, a few countries and companies have taken steps to erect barriers that limit consumers and businesses from taking advantage of the full promise and potential of Internet based services like VoIP.

Several countries have kept high entry barriers for traditional voice services and extended these barriers to Internet based voice services. In other cases, ambiguities about VoIP service classification have allowed incumbent phone companies to unilaterally block or restricted the ability of any entity, foreign or domestic, to supply VoIP services over their broadband network. In some cases the limitations on licenses over a borderless communication medium or access to and the cost of telephone number fees have proven to be a significant barrier to market entry, as is the ability to interconnect to the legacy PSTN network.

For example:

India, who has become the world’s back office by utilizing VoIP (who hasn’t called up a help desk and ended up talking with someone from India), nonetheless regulators there prevent VoIP services from connecting to the Indian phone network.

China has created strict licensing criteria that will delay its ability to take advantage of the power and potential of Internet communication for years to come. (think great digital wall of China)

Kuwait regulators have harassed, raided, physical assaulted, and arrested those involved in Internet voice including providers, employees, and users. (NOTE: If you are reading this blog from Kuwait, don’t click on the link I provided above that can initiate a call for your own protection.)

United Arab Emirates is now blocking access to a variety of VoIP services and earlier this year compared it to something as harmful as access to pornography.

Armenian regulators have also allowed VoIP blocking. As a result, earlier this year hundreds of people rallied in the streets of Yerevan in protest against a ruling allowing the monopoly telephone company ArmenTel to restrict or even block altogether competitors’ access to VoIP.

Saudi Arabian monopoly provider Saudi Telecoms continues to use IP tracking technology to block VoIP calls.

That is why the VON Coalition has called on the USTR and these countries to help unleash a positive future and stop blocking consumer access to VoIP. Last year, as a result of a similar VON Coalition challenge, the US government called on these other countries to open up their markets to VoIP and there were some positive steps forward.

By lowering these barriers and prohibitions, VoIP-led innovation has immense potential to extend the power of Internet communications to new corners. Consumers throughout the world will be able to use VoIP to do things never thought possible, businesses may increase efficiency and productivity and transform the way they operate, and broadband enabled communications can help economies to become engines for innovation and the creation of higher-paying Information Age jobs.

These are great efforts, and I’m glad there are people out there fighting for these things.


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Posted by jeff on December 26, 2007 08:31 AM | Permalink

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Comments

Hey there Jeff! Great post. I was in Abu Dhabi last March and couldn't access Instant Messenger because, as the redirect informed me, it was 'against the religious, moral, cultural and political values of the United Arab Emirates.' I suspected that it was more against the economic values than anything else.

You might also be interested in Rachel McAlpine's discussion of web censorship in Australia (http://www.contented.com/contented/?p=323) and Japan (http://www.contented.com/contented/?p=318).

Posted by: Kaila Colbin at January 1, 2008 06:43 PM

hi jeff - this is all about not what it appears to be about - its about control of information, new, propaganda - the most dangerous weapon in the former soviet union was the copier and fax - its about control and the politics of distraction - and the VoIP control is about not stifling VoIP but about strangling propaganda that they don't create - so you also forgot to mention that our fearless FCC chairman kevin martin right before the holidays did an information coup here that just tightens the noose too and its all basically the same in the US of AH so - but we want to believe in our own propaganda that our leaders governments, business are looking out for us - we are like frogs in slowly heated water - while a frog put in boiling water will jump out the other frog will boil to death - food for thought - geo

Posted by: geo at December 26, 2007 06:11 PM

I thought that Indian regulation does allow VoIP services to connect to the Indian phone network. It is true that they need to register and pay certain interconnect tariff. But isn't that nor true in US as well?

Posted by: Aswath at December 26, 2007 10:52 AM

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