Consultancy Analysys Mason has just published a report for the Internet Society on what a good thing the Internet is, as it is, not as it might be if undermined by the imposition of telco business models. By I.D. Scales.
To borrow a metaphor from the debate itself, there's been too much intellectual traffic flowing in one direction when it comes to Internet business models.
This report, commission by the Internet Society and entitled '
How the Internet continues to sustain growth and innovation', is a direct and pointed rebuttal to all the talk of data tsunami, unsustainable business models, scissor effects and so on that we've had for the last year or two and which have culminated (in a way) in the effort to establish 'sending network pays' principles in what most observers have, to now, regarded as the happily defunct ITRs (see -
US delegation prepares to play Whack-a-Mole at ITU meet).
This report is a sober reminder that the Internet continues to work remarkably well and that its heartbeat is sustained by the very things - openness underpinned by settlement-free peering - that some want to get rid of.
The report tackles all of the technical and structural objections to the way the Internet is governed and shows how the technology and the evolving business models have always solved looming crises.
For instance, despite fears to the contrary the history of the Internet so far has involved sustainable development as bandwidth demands rise.
The author, Michael Kende, points out that these 'grind to a halt' worries and warnings have been around since the Internet was first introduced and especially after the World Wide Web was unleashed. However, none have panned out and there is no evidence that the Internet's ability to adapt and grow will be lost in the future using the current structure.
It's worth a read...
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