Cerf's comments on Britain out of date

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Richard Bennett [richard () bennett com]
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 3:52 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Cerf's comments on Britain out of date

Recent comments by Vint Cerf offering the British model to the US are
actually quite odd, as Britain is moving in a direction that's more
US-like, where the next-generation fiber infrastructure will be funded
by services. The general idea is that British Telecom can pay for new
infrastructure with services and *very high wholesale prices* for some
period of time, and only after that will the wholesale price resemble
operational cost. See this article on comments by the head of Ofcom,
Britain's FCC:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/04/ed_richards_fibre_intellect/print.html

The boss of Ofcom has given the clearest indication yet that regulators
are ready to offer BT more control over a next generation UK broadband
infrastructure in exchange for investment.

In a speech in London at IT bigwig yacking shop Intellect yesterday, Ed
Richards sympathised that "operators" who might invest in new
infrastructure (read: BT) need to know that watchdogs will let them
"make and keep" a rate of return on the investment.

That will likely mean allowing BT to operate a fibre network at a big
competitive advantage, via high wholesale charges to other broadband
providers who want to use the lines.

It's very unlikely that Ofcom would let BT run a national fibre network
as a traditonal incumbent monopoly. German regulators have tried the
same trick to tease more investment in fibre from Deutsche Telekom, and
are facing court action from the European Commission as a result.

Richards said: "They [investors in fibre] need a time horizon that gives
them a degree of assurance for a realistic period in the future; that
they know for example that the regulator will not suddenly change the
rules of the game to reduce the returns just as the rewards for the risk
start to flow in."

RB

David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
> Date: July 24, 2008 9:12:50 AM EDT
> To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Telcos hurting national interest says Vint Cerf
> - Father of Internet
>
> July 22nd, 2008
> Telcos hurting national interest says Vint Cerf - Father of Internet
> <http://blogs.zdnet.com/Foremski/?p=289&tag=nl.e539>
>
> I spoke with Vint Cerf at the Fortune Brainstorm conference in Half
> Moon Bay. I asked him about net neutrality and the problems created by
> Telcos in trying to own the gateways to the Internet.
>
> Here is the video, the quality is very high contrast because of the
> lighting but the content is fascinating. Mr Cerf talks about how he
> was misquoted on the subject of net neutrality and offers a solution
> to the current issues around broadband Internet.
>
> [snip]
>
> Video at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-dLq3uIJos>
>
>
>
>
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