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Internet Policies in Other Countries?
Panthro asks: "I am writing a paper on how other countries are handling the internet, including censoring, broadband infrastructure deployment, ISP availability and quality, and general involvement levels of governments in the delivery of content to their constituents. Any personal experience involving the creation or enforcing of such policies would be very helpful." It's always wise to know what internet policies are being enforced out there, if only to know what's been decided on by others, which policies you might want to implement and which ones you might want to avoid implementing at any cost.
Oh my goodness, you HAVE to be a networking company, just to register in a hierarchy that is restricted to use by networking companies?
.org.br will be restricted to organizations, and .edu.br will be restricted to schools!
The nerve of some people. How can they get away with this?
Why, the next thing you know,
Clearly, it's time for all Brazilians who think like you to rise up and overthrow their oppressors. Let me know how the three of you make out.
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This was done to prevent US carriers from simply putting POPs in Canada and routing traffic through the US, undercutting Canadian suppliers. This regulation is primarily for long distance (voice) carriers. It does appear to have achieved what it set out to do, which was force new entrants to the networking market to build their own networks, rather than route through their networks in the US. And yes, this rule _is_ enforced when it contravenes the _intent_ of the regulation. It isn't intended to beat up individuals.
No idea about the under-18 thing though. Where did that come from?
Jason PollockHere in Portugal the communications infrastructure is owned by one company, Portugal Telecom, which is, of course, a monopoly, and a state-owned one at that (it's been privatized, but that didn't change much). Private companies have been piggy-backing on regional and national calls for about two years, but local calls are just now opening up (still piggy-backing, and are still ina transitional phase).
:-) )
So, we pay ISP's for our connection, and we pay for the calls.
We now have free internet access, but it sucks. You really have to pay if you want to have something passable.
Cable is also pratically a monopoly, and is now just starting to offer net access, but there are few people who have it 'cause it's very expensive to set up (and they force you to use their cable modems, even if you have one. Oh, yes, and according to them, it only works on windows and you have to have a cable modem per computer... can you believe that?!?)
Censorship is non-existing (at least that). I really doubt anyone in our gov. can use a computer...
Most teens think Internet is IRC and ICQ... and netiquette is a weird word for mushrooms.
90% of the 5% of the population that knows anything about computers think that Windows is the greatest thing since codfish with garlick (favorite local dish...
Well, at least it's unexplored territory.
shana
Down here the government hasnt censored any sites I know of, but like all things that can change, especially considering that a portion of the country with a pretty loud voice is strongly influenced by the church.
Theres a lot of broadband options, the two big cable companies are offering cable connections (27$ for 160 - 80$ for 960), theres a lot of people offering dsl (40$-as high as you need-want), but the most known and popular are the telephone companies, they are not monopolies and they compete on pretty much every terrain, local, international, internet access, etc.. And everyone and their neighbour is offering dial-up with every conceivable quality and pricing options. Also theres some companies offering special connections to companies, I imagine high quality dsl or t1s, I dont know.
chao
Jajirov
At least concerning domain names, the Brazilian NIC is very controlling. You can't register domain names without the proper documentation to ensure that you are a .com. The policies for other domains, like .net.br, are even worse: you have to be a "networking company" - like a telecom - in order to get one of those domains. That, together with the fact that they overcharge a lot, is like a "please go register a .com instead of a .com.br " request.
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Of course, neither of these rules are ever enforced to the best of my knowledge.
Apart from that, Canada has reasonable Internet access. Broadband is available in virtually all cities at a rate of $40 a month or less (Canadian, so about $26 U.S.). Often the service is lousy but no more so than in the U.S. In universities here, basically everyone has to have Internet access (perhaps through computer labs on campus), even for psych and philosophy and other such courses.
Outside of universities and colleges, though, probably only a little over fifty percent of people use the Internet regularly.
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Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
The broadband companies are out in force in Stockholm. Many people live in appartment blocks which are maintained by a cooperation. A lot of the appartments are being wired for broadband access. It's about $15 - $20 a month and you get up to 100MBPS, with little or no installation charge. They are also laying broadband cables to houses in the city too. I got my line fittet last month, can't wail till it's connected up!!!
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... where 75% of narrowband surfers are tied to an ISP that charges them a fortune for the priviledge of handing out their confidential information to anyone who asks, where the government censors citizens' net access, where innovation is smothered by a patent, copyright and legal system that ensures that access to lawyers, not conformance with laws, decides right from wrong, where private corporations use government money to perform global control of the internet by fiat and decree, where...
Yeah, I'd hate to live in a foreign country like the USA. Those guys have seriously lost the plot.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Never been there, but read a quote in the New York Times once that follows: "In Myanmar, internet use is outlawed, and anyone caught abusing a modem is sentenced to 15 years in jail."