Re: private 5G networks?

[Mark Tinka <mark@tinka.africa>]

On 12/6/21 19:34, Jean St-Laurent wrote:

> Strangely, there is apparently a lawsuit of $150B against Meta for for facilitating Rohingya Genocide . I am not sure 
> how valid it is and where it will go, but $150B is quite something.
>
> It looks like the price a country has to pay after a war.

Content folk will never openly admit it, but I don't think this is 
something they cannot deal with. They are in a business where borders, 
buildings and factories have no value. Even if they got broken up in the 
U.S., you can't break up ideas and culture... it will just split up and 
move into countries where they won't be bothered.

But back to your point... the reason content folk can get away with 
these "distractions" is, again, because of us, the users. While many 
users will care about how ethical the content folk are, most will not. 
Users just want the platform to keep going, because it is a platform 
that not only consistently provides value, but is annoyingly good at 
relentlessly improving the experience.

We saw what happened between Google and Australia. Who did you think 
random Australian citizens on the street were going to back? And yes, 
even if Google or the rest did a deal where they pay something to local 
traditional publishers, it's still a net-win for them, and the world 
keeps spinning.

The best way to protect your business is from the loyalty of your 
customers, and the content folk are very good and acquiring and 
maintaining that loyalty, for better or worse.


> These cloud providers failed to not polarize the debate. They interfere in the process and it's illegal nearly 
> everywhere except online for the cloud providers.

And that's to my point, about this not being about borders, buildings or 
factories. The Internet is the level-playing field, as long as you have 
a half-decent idea. Whether that idea is good or bad doesn't matter. 
What matters is if you can capture the hearts and minds of tens, 
hundreds, thousands, millions or billions of users, because that is 
leverage which can't be taken away from you.


> Telco are at the moment in a much better position than cloud providers in my opinion. The train started to anticipate the 
> curve and it's already changing direction.

I'm not sure how you figure that... infrastructure is under massive 
pressure to keep up with what the content folk are doing. We can no 
longer buy kit at reasonable prices that does what we want; our 
customers see us a nuisance that sits between them and their app; we 
have no innovation DNA; even though we are also users of these apps from 
the content folk that make our lives easier, we don't know how to 
translate that into the same experience in our own businesses; we can't 
negotiate with vendors, gubbermints, partners, e.t.c., at the same 
level; and we are constantly at risk of losing whatever leverage we have 
over our customers depending on whether the content folk are in the mood 
to "build it themselves" or not.

A live example playing out for me, now, is how one of my mobile 
providers is struggling to get me on to a new contract despite them not 
being able to give me a new iPhone, because of all the global shortages 
of stock. They have lost about nearly all billing from me, and I likely 
represent a ton of other customers going through the same. Their whole 
model is hinged on continuous device upgrades to maintain billing, and 
now that those devices are nowhere to be found, they are stuck. They are 
creating data, voice and SMS products that have no head or tail, because 
that is the depth of their innovation. The kids don't want voice and SMS 
in 2021 - they will use data to make WhatsApp or FaceTime calls, if they 
must.

I dumped my "full package" and took a data-only package for 1GB/month, 
at US$2.45/month. I put the Mrs. on the same, but 8GB/month for 
US$8.09/month. Between us both, that is 20X less billing than they could 
get from us, all because without the iPhone, their model crashes.

Telco's are in serious trouble, and that includes ISP's. We need to 
figure it out, fast!


> To come back on Private 5G networks. Can a private 5G network protect against spyware like Pegazus?

How secure is your private cloud, is the obvious question :-).

I really don't know, to be honest. And really, I actually don't care. If 
Amazon can make the model work, cheaply, people will build upon it 
anyway. If they don't trust that Amazon can keep it safe, they'll just 
add IPSec, or Amazon can sell IPSec as an add-on service... or whatever 
else newfangled security service thing will exist at the time.

Mark.