Is Internet access essential?

Reuters is reporting a German case that seems to have held that access to the Internet is comparable to access to a car, as an "essential" part of life.

The ruling was in the context of a two month service outage, and, according to the article, German law provides that the loss of "essential material items" can be compensated.

Perhaps the decision is more understandable in this context — that it is actually a means of obtaining what seems to be a fairly sensible remedy for a consumer (at least, I think he's a consumer) when a service provider fails.

A more expansive interpretation, that DSL (at what speed?) is essential is perhaps pushing it too far, particularly where there are areas without broadband access.

Or is access to the Internet essential, along with water and power?

Buses and Telecoms Spectrum Auctions

A very interesting article in The Guardian describing the manner in which OFCOM's $G spectrum auction has been designed  Apparently it is modelled on a process designed when London Transport's bus network was privatised and bundles of routes were auctioned off to different operators.

I do recall that in the famous software case of St Albans DC v. ICL the local authority tried to negotiate contractual terms based on a London Underground contract. Hopefully the bus route model will result in a happier ending than was the outcome in that case.

Serval: voice, SMS and file transfer via mesh networking

I was doing some research today and stumbled across Serval, which looks to be a fascinating project. It's developing software to run on Android devices to enable voice, text and file transfer services through a meshed network of devices, suitable for use in disaster areas and rural communities without traditional coverage.

The gory detail is available here.

The future of mobile telephony? Probably not in any mainstream way, but potentially a very good way to communicate outside a normal system, especially if the traffic is end-to-end encrypted, as a quick look at the architecture suggests to me that it would be rather prone to interception. Perhaps not a major concern for its intended uses, though.

WebRTC

Almost unknown today, potentially used by everyone in six months time?

WebRTC means real-time communications between browsers, in particular sound and video communications, on a peer-to-peer, page-to-page basis. It comprises browser code that Google open sourced back in June 2011 and which implements an emerging standard API being developed co-operatively by web standards bodies the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Their efforts derive from the work on HTML 5 and related technologies carried out by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG).

From The Register.

EU rejects changes to UN telecommunications treaty affecting internet governance

This news is a few weeks' old, but I think it is noteworth as indicative of the international power struggles going on regarding control over the Internet:

The EU, along with 54 other countries including the US and Canada, has declined to sign up to a revised version of the United Nations' International Telecommunication Regulations, a voluntary treaty aimed at regulating telecommunications around the world. The UN agency responsible for maintaining the treaty, the International Telecommunication Union, held a conference in early December 2012 to try to agree changes to the treaty to reflect the rise of the internet since the treaty was agreed in 1988. New provisions deal with the creation of a new, single worldwide telephone number to access emergency services, increased transparency of pricing for mobile roaming, and improvements to the energy-efficiency of IT networks, as well as more controversial measures relating to network security, spam email, access to other signatory countries' networks, and freedom of expression on the internet. The European Commission has indicated that its refusal to become a signatory arose from concerns for the continued openness of the internet.

It is interesting to compare press releases from the EU (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-12-991_en.htm?locale=en) and the ITU (http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2012/92.aspx) on this news.

Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age

I've just come across this book, "Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age," which looks rather good.

It seems to take a predominantly US perspective to the issue of communications monopolies and, once I've read it, I'll try to come back and comment on whether the points Crawford makes seem applicable to non-US situations.

"Ten years ago, the United States stood at the forefront of the Internet revolution. With some of the fastest speeds and lowest prices in the world for high-speed Internet access, the nation was poised to be the global leader in the new knowledge-based economy. Today that global competitive advantage has all but vanished because of a series of government decisions and resulting monopolies that have allowed dozens of countries, including Japan and South Korea, to pass us in both speed and price of broadband. This steady slide backward not only deprives consumers of vital services needed in a competitive employment and business market—it also threatens the economic future of the nation.

This important book by leading telecommunications policy expert Susan Crawford explores why Americans are now paying much more but getting much less when it comes to high-speed Internet access. Using the 2011 merger between Comcast and NBC Universal as a lens, Crawford examines how we have created the biggest monopoly since the breakup of Standard Oil a century ago. In the clearest terms, this book explores how telecommunications monopolies have affected the daily lives of consumers and America's global economic standing."

"Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile Phone"

 
I read "Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile Phone" over the weekend and, if you are interested in an easy going background on cellular communications, this is not bad.

It is pretty light on detail, as is probably to be expected of a mass-market book, but it does give a good impression of the highly inefficient way in which cellular services came to the fore. It stops around 2002/3, and so does not touch on 3G/UMTS, other than in the context of Japan, and tries to cover a number of different aspects — social and political effects, the drivers behind different countries' approaches, phones and crime and so on.

It is available for download — no licence specified — from the author's homepage.

"Regulating Social Networks: More Harm than Good?"

UCL is running what looks to be an interesting event in London on 31st January, on the regulation of social networks:

The effect of the spread of social media has been dramatic; altering the power dynamic between consumers and providers of goods and services, disrupting traditional business models, undermining intellectual property rights, enabling cultural participation, and facilitating a more democratic flow of information.

On January 31, 2013 UCL Laws will play host to a fascinating exchange between leading thinkers involved in the industry and policy surrounding social media.

I've booked to go — if anyone else is thinking of going, do let me know!