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Global Crossing (Nearly) Sold To Singapore
sQuEeDeN writes "According to money.cnn.com, the sale of Global Crossing to STT (Singapore Technologies Telemedia) has been permitted by the administration. There originally were concerns about this sale by the DoD/ DOHS but, by what I assume to be much behind-the-scenes negotiating, such concerns have been alleviated. Ultimately this shouldn't [knock] matter much but it's always interesting to see where your bandwidth comes from. We'll see what it means for the U.S. to have it's global bandwidth be owned by, well, someone else."
Global Crossing is a notorious spam-haven. Perhaps, if it goes to Singapore, that will change for the better with spammers being sentenced to canings.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
We'll see what it means for the U.S. to have it's global bandwidth be owned by, well, someone else.
Global Crossing now provides free open relays for spammers... (OK, not really, but I'm gonna have nightmares about it tonight)
What is your Slash Rating?
that Bush doesn't do anything to piss Singapore off in the near future.
In other news (OT), does anyone know what the hell STFU means on a dishwasher LCD readout? I opened my dishwasher just then and it didn't stop running, therefore entirely covering me in water and bits of food. I closed it quickly and now it's blinking STFU on the LCD readout.
I bet carnivore or whatever the hall it's called these days reared it's ugly head somewhere in this deal.
Can't wiretap you country because it's unconstitutional or ISPs won't play? Let an overseas developer buy it in exchange for snooping access.
Just a theory, nothing provable yet, but the deal sounds shady.
Hammer of Truth
What is it and why should I care? The article doesnt explain it very well
Just another entry in the logbook of the continuing saga of America selling itself off piecemeal to the highest bidder. By the way, I have an extra video monitor for sale if anyone wants it.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
You have to remember that even though Global Crossing seems ubiquitous, the company is only four years old (formed in 1999 from a merger between a Bermuda-based fiber-optic company and a local US telecom operator), and really died at the age of two--it was run into the ground by the end of 2001, buried in accounting scandals, and filed for bankruptcy in January of 2002. All it has going for it is a widespread physical infrastructure (most of which it doesn't even own outright, with liabilities in the tens of billions of dollars). I say good riddance; let Singapore have them. The only unfortunate thing is that GC's public shareholders will get nothing--that's a big fat $0--from this deal.
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Only the future of low cost broadband will be realized through municipal run companies like the electric company. We are lagging behind the rest of the world. Doubters ,ask yourself this, how much would electricity cost if the electric companies were privatized ?
The folks California could help you out there. The big businesses who are always one step ahead of regulators were price fixing and gouging.
Broadband internet access is too important now to let companies like AT&T and Time Warner to control.
If the public and local governments would take control of the cable lines and implement WI - Fi Network over them then we would see some real fireworks. Leasing these lines to big business who put stupid shows and infomercials for the dumbest percentage of the population is not smart.
Inter alia, note the use of the words "ONLY IF",
i rs/exon-florio/
" President can exercise this authority under section 721 (also known as the "Exon-Florio provision") to block a foreign acquisition of a U.S. corporation only if he finds:
(1) there is credible evidence that the foreign entity exercising control might take action that threatens national security, and
(2) the provisions of law, other than the International Emergency Economic Powers Act do not provide adequate and appropriate authority to protect the national security. "
http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/international-affa
"TREASON" has a very specific definition in the Constitution:
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."
Clearly, despite all his faults, and they are legion, the glorious leader has done nothing wrong in this case.
Here are the ammended contract terms finally approved by DoD/DOHS:
Cable Maintenence: Purchaser acknowledges that the communications system comprises many thousands of miles of optical fiber, and that this fiber will require periodic maintenence.
ADDENDUM: Purchaser's employees may from time to time encounter a splice in said optical fiber. These splices may occasionally connect to black boxes and/or satellite dishes, or other equipment or devices. Purchaser acknowledges that such equipment or devices are NOT included in this transaction and are NOT the property of the purchaser. Purchaser agrees that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE THE PURCHASERS EMPLOYEES TO DISTURB, DISABLE, INTERFERE WITH OR DISCLOSE THESE DEVICES TO ANY PARTY. Purchaser's employees will at all times ignore these devices and deny their existence to any party that may inquire about such devices. If purchaser violates the terms of this clause, purchaser acknowledges that the entire communications network may be vaporized by a controlling third party without notice and without any compensation to the purchaser, and the security deposit will not be refunded.
it was bad enough when people lost jobs because they were outsourced now we're going to lose ever more job because of foriegn takeovers...if this isn't stopped i think its about time we start considering the option to outsource our congress...
Outsourcing Congress is a GREAT IDEA! :)
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I guess that means no more chewing gum while online.
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
"We'll see what it means for the U.S. to have it's global bandwidth be owned by, well, someone else."
Southern Cross is the biggest pipe in the South Pacific. It's not exactly US owned.
Telecom Corp. of New Zealand Ltd. 50.0%
Optus 40.0%
WorldCom, Inc. 10.0%
I doubt it would ever happen but I'm sure more than a few network security analysts in the govt have many misgivings about a forein company controlling the largest telecom carrier in the US.
I'm sure many would point out that we've had no problems with the Panama Canal yet. But what happens if China saw it in it's interest to block passage of US ships. What would the US do? Go back and take it over again?
Now that can be easy enough. But what do you do when the company controlling the network your work across just changes the passwords across the whole network and then shuts down nearly the entire US network grid? What army of engineers will go out and replace each and every network device that's blocked?
It's obvious that nobody asked Bush the hard questions or maybe since he does not even use a cell phone, knows how vital these systems really are.
The holdup in the fed was over a foreign business interest owning and operating a piece of "critical infrastructure" like a fibre optic grid. Big deal. There are two relevant counter-points to such an argument:
First, there are several other large backbone companies that are still very much U.S.-owned: Qwest, Level3, UUNet/WorldCom/MCI, C&W, etc. In fact, a handy breakdown of major backbone providers is available at http://navigators.com/isp.html. Global Crossing is a small piece in a big pie.
Second, regardless of who "owns" the network, what finally matters is who has access to the physical equipment. If, in some bizarre act of twisted politics the government of Singapore decides to use STT to hijack the American telecom system, all the U.S. government has to do is break down the doors of the buildings housing all the routers. It's impossible for a foreign company to provide "remote" cable connectivity because of the physical element - all they're really doing is paying people to run the network and taking in the profits.
Regardless, however, it's reasonably certain that whatever "deal" was brokered between the U.S. government and STT probably involves an open-ended permit for monitoring traffic on the wire. Yet another gift brought to you by the Department of Homeland Security...
What, like the United States*?
Make sure you've got your own back covered before you start hurling your bigotry around. (Of course, I don't know if you are from the U.S., but if you're going to ignorantly lump all Asian countries into one big stereotype, I'll take my liberties and at least conclude that you are from the so-called western world, and that you are, as such, just as responsible for the U.S. administration as the people of Singapore are for that of China.)
That having been said, I know a lot of UCE originates from China, but with a population that's about one fifth of theirs and a GDP per capita more than eight freaking times of theirs, which country do you think is employing its resources least adequately?
*) Spamcop seems to have made a PC decision to stop compiling statistics by worst offending ISPs, but while they did, the two main culprits (and it doesn't look like that has changed) were consistently two *cough* Sprint large *cough* Bell South networks in the U.S.
I for one welcome our new SCOviet Russian overlords to whom all our base are belong.
This isn't the first sale of telecommunications infrastructure to an SG company owned by the SG gov't. Optus, the second largest telecom company in Australia was sold to Singtel which the Singaporean government has a 70% stake in, meaning it basically owns it, and I think the CEO is the PM of Singapore's relative. They kept it quiet in the Australian media that Singtel is government owned, and I've spoken to an executive at Optus who's told me that their company is being run into the ground internally. So, the Singaporean government is involved in a conspiracy to take over the world's telecommunications? You be the judge!
This occured already over three years ago with Verio being bought out by NTT, which is the major Japanese telecom. Clinton had to sign off of the deal, and Verio has a bigger backbone than Global Crossing. Anyone that is petrified about some offshore company handling US traffic is about three years too late in worrying.
Eat recycled food - it's good for the environment, and OK for you.