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George Gilder on Telecommunications Policy
Codeine writes "The Testimony of Mr. George Gilder to the Telecommunications Policy: A Look Ahead hearing held by the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation strongly supports the idea [of] mandated 'open access' to the logical layers of the network, and it is embodied in a new legislative proposal by MCI, A Horizontal Leap Forward: Formulating a New Public Policy Framework Based on the Network Layers Model. The success of the layered model in the LAN environment, migrated to the WAN."
The U.S. now ranks eleventh internationally in residential "broadband" access. Using the FCC's silly 200-kilobit-per-second definition, some now say that 25 percent of American homes have broadband. But by the standards of Asia--where most citizens enjoy access speeds 10 times faster than our fastest links--U.S. residences have no broadband at all.
Hi, I'm Mr. George Gilder. You may remember me from such other testimonies as "Manipulating data" and "Obfuscating statistics."
I would like to inform you that ubuiquity of broadband is in no way related to population density.
Gentlement, I thank you for your time.
An effective signature identifies a particular user amongst a base of thousands.
Ideas such as defined network layers, APIs, etc. offer a happy medium between proprietary and open development. The APIs become open to the public allowing different companies to integrate in an existing framework. It seems to me the ideal world would have elements of different approaches to life. Rather than OSS having to push all proprietary software out of existence through a viral legal model, or a monopoly controlling the computer horizontally from OS to Office Suite, a structured layer model could create a working ground for both models.
This guy actually wants to let people lock in "content", and it sounds to me like DRM is perfectly fine with him as well.
What a putz!
--Mike--
The problem with this analogy is that it is the actually building of the lines where we need to concentrate our economic resources. So, if the government owns the lines, then we put an inefficient bureaucracy in charge of the area where we need the work.
When a government or single monopoly completely defines one layer of the puzzle, we create an artificial bottleneck based on the government regulation or the inner mechanizations of the monopoly. Personally, I think we need a maleable structure that allows different companies to compete at different layers.
Then the government is either going to have to lay the lines itself, or pay someone to do them. No one will do it on their own if they aren't going to own them.
Sitting here in 2004 with tons of unused fiber laid cross-country already, you may find it easy to say that, but when I was sitting there in 1994 wanting to get connectivity for 160 offices across the US, I was damn glad that wasn't the case.
Companies like the original WilTel (who were originally natural gas and oil providers who laid the fiber in the right-of-way of existing pipelines (SPRINT did the same thing with railroad right-of-ways) made it possible to have high speed digital connectivity at a time when the government regulated monopoly of RBOCs and their artifically drawn LATA boundaries made supposed 'public' lines completely unavailable. Yes, this all happened because of the AT&T breakup. Still, we'd be glad to have an ISDN connection right now if private industry hadn't filled the need.
Then again, you might be talking about the last mile, as the article was. Once again - why lay the infrastructure if you aren't going to own it? No one will. If you are going to wait for the government to do it, you are going to be waiting a long, long time.
The fundamental problem is that the existing copper local loop is 'good enough' to provide some access. Therefore, there is no drive for the government granted monopoly of local telephone providers - technically the owners of the local loop - to improve it. In this case, the granting of monopoly powers works against us - but it is still necessary to provide service on the local loop and at the CO.
There is no real solution to the problem that doesn't involve losing something. Pick 2 out of 3 - service, speed, low price. Most people aren't willing to compromise on #3 or #1, that's why you have shitty lines.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Part of the way governments enforce the local monopolies is with strict regulations on who can string fiber...when and where. I worked with a mining company that could not network two buildings on their property because the bureaucracy considered the dirt road between the buildings a public access.
One solution to the last mile problem is to let individuals own it. Having individuals owning the wire to a neighborhood NOC and being able to rent services from anyone providing services to the NOC would distribute ownership of the last mile. It also gets over number 3...individuals are not happy paying a high rent for the last mile, but would be willing to fork out bucks when they own the resource outright.
I live about 30 miles away from New York City and still can not get any wire-DSL, wireless local-loop or Fixed Position Wireless (Google the phrases), ... why be forced to share the cable. Data is data; So, why not have three or more companies that are able to provide all services (phone, HDTV, data, internet, ...) and content that I/you select/want and just one bill for $100 or less a month. I'll pick my provider and keep them as long as they keep me happy for a good price.
... providing a real performance incentive and dynamic Capitalist "Open Market" is the way to go. Any law that mandates control/protection of sectors (special interest) in technology, customer base, media/content, ... is a big-bad mistake for economic development and the citizens of a nation. Let performance, total-cost (environment, health, welfare, ...), and customer satisfaction rule the market.
....
"Building a new service that people really like." OR "The real threat to monopolize and paralyze the Internet is not the communications industry and its suppliers, but the premature modularizers and commoditizers, the proponents of the dream of some final government solution for the uncertainties of all life and commerce."
Open standards, technology, innovation, laws, concepts,
Allowing special/proprietary interest to control the market and customer is Un-American, Communistic, and anti-capitalist, everything many of US are against, unless you're a rhetoric and dogma hog like many politicians and fools. Bad businesses must fail, file bankruptcy, and pass into history. Just as that HP CEO said no USA worker should have a god given right to a job, I say no business/CEO should have a Government granted right to market share and/or customer base. We should never protect any market sector or customer base for corporate welfare and customer exploitation as we have been doing by laws for special interest during the last 30 years (at least). It will just promote more enrons for US. Act in the customers interest with laws that allow and promote choices, freedoms, options,
OldHawk777
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?