Re: We're Stuck In The Slow Lane Of The Information Trollway -- it's all about the billing relationship

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Bob Frankston <bob37-2 () bobf frankston com>
Date: May 8, 2007 5:03:11 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com
Cc: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () dandin com>
Subject: RE: [IP] We're Stuck In The Slow Lane Of The Information  
Trollway -- it's all about the billing relationship

If you get what you ask for you will live in the poverty of your  
limited imagination. If you aren’t prescriptive and you take  
advantage of opportunity you will get more than you can imagine.



As usual I find these panic attacks to be very worrisome – it’s as if  
we acted on the belief that cell phones kill bees (as per the recent  
letter on IP). Need I keep reminding people that home networks now  
run at a gigabit only because no one worried about the speed and let  
normal marketplace processes do their thing. If we had set speed  
goals I am completely certain we’d be stuck at 10Mbps and any attempt  
to go faster would violate the detailed technical requirements  
presumed necessary to assure that all elements of the system  
interoperate (as per the Y2K theory of systems design).



Important Caveat – it’s important to understand marketplace  
architecture – it’s about decoupling, and limiting corporate control.  
But those who seek to do use good often confuse enabling marketplaces  
with protecting corporate from the very forces that give marketplaces  
their vitality.



This is precisely what we see here. You are supposed to petition your  
broadband provider to do more of the same and in doing so give it  
more control. These Privileged Service Providers are very threatened  
by the Internet so they have a strong  stake in having the ability to  
be in legal compliance with goals (and being heroes to boot) and then  
using their clout to treat all those who dare do better than them  
(AKA, users – their competitors) as a threat to the natural order.  
This allows them sneak one past the antitrust laws.



If we can get gigabits from each strand of copper imagine what is  
available in a bundle of fiber! And even if we use the existing  
copper if you place a DSL repeater at the half way point you  
quadruple capacity (and repeat). Even better if you treat all strands  
as a common medium which reduces support costs since the strands  
become fungible. I’m not arguing copper vs fiber (or wireless) – just  
that we are falling for a con job that leaves us with an  
infinitesimal  portion of the potential capacity.



And the con goes on – by keeping us mesmerized by the shiny strands  
of glass and we forget that what’s really important is coverage –  
what good 100Mbps to your TV or PC when you have fallen down in the  
park and can’t get up because you don’t have a billing relationship  
with the accidental path of service-limited access points. It’s all  
about the idea that you must have a billing relationships with the  
accidental path your bits take! This assures that we cannot create  
our own solutions. If we didn’t try to contain the bits within this  
billable paths it wouldn’t be possible to limit the capacity of the  
medium.



As a relevant aside it seems as if the security leak at TJMax was due  
to an unguarded link (Wi-Fi). In the spirit of redoubling our path  
dependency there are calls for better passwords for each link. There  
seems to be little understanding of the concept of end-to-end. These  
issues are very much aligned with a fundamental shift from naïve  
physical metaphors to more abstract concepts –how many generations  
will it take?



Speed is trivial – the dial up modem completely trounced the entire  
Interactive TV industry thanks to the web which gave people a reason  
to find their own solutions without waiting for a service provider to  
deign to provision a path. As long as you don’t over-defined the  
solution you’ll get speed – it’s hard not to.



The Information Highway to Hell is provisioned with the fast  
intentions that play well on TV. They play far better than “Land of  
Opportunity” does.



http://www.frankston.com



-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 1:46 PM
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [IP] We're Stuck In The Slow Lane Of The Information Highway







Begin forwarded message:



From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)

Date: May 8, 2007 9:49:49 AM EDT

To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>

Subject: [Dewayne-Net] We're Stuck In The Slow Lane Of The

Information Highway



WE'RE STUCK IN THE SLOW LANE OF THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY

[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]



[Commentary] When it comes to reasonably priced, high-speed Internet

service, the United States is an embarrassment. Despite years of

promises from politicians and technology titans, the U.S. continues

to lag far behind our global competitors. Worse, much of U.S.

"broadband" service is only a smidgen faster than a dial-up modem.

Both government and the telecommunications industry are to blame. The

technology to deliver truly high-speed Internet access is there,

especially for cable subscribers. Customers need to demand better

service from providers. The government needs to step in, too. The

U.S. needs a national strategy to get affordable broadband to every

man, woman and child by the end of the decade. The federal

government's lack of leadership in this area is a disgrace. Despite a

2004 promise by President Bush to deliver "universal, affordable

access to broadband technology by the year 2007," his administration

has done nothing to advance that goal.



<http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_5836382?nclick_check=1>





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