Networking Pipeline: I'm not sure the current FCC makeup is for or against more regulation, as much as they seem to be for big businesses.
Hundt: The good news is, that the power of the Internet is such that the regulators at the FCC and for the most part at the state level are afraid to say that they want to regulate the Internet. the trick is, it's important that those who believe of the economic efficiency and cultural benefits of the Internet have to understand that there are three key, unfortunately obscure issues that they have to worry about:
Number One: Inter-carrier compensation. In the dawn of cellular telephony, could you call a wireline phone? Absolutely. Why? Because your FCC stepped in and said the intercarrier charge was very very low. So the network effects of the base of telephony users on the fixed lines were shared with the new wireless companies, who could take advantage [of it] by offering their customers cheap access to 200 million fixed lines.
You've got to have the same thing with broadband voice or it won't go anywhere. You need to be able to take a broadband voice call from cable or DSL, and place it on a circuit-switched line without paying a meaningful charge. I'll compromise: Point 1 cent a minute would be fine. That's .1 cent, not 1 cent, per minute. And not 10 [cents per minute]!
Number Two: It's got to be possible for the user to be sure, no matter who their broadband provider is, that they can go to the Internet, and can make a voice call anywhere. There have to be industry practices about openness -- whether they need to be enshrined in regulation it's too early to say. They need to be charged to everybody, so you can have multiple software application vendors actually hatch applications to a voice protocol. That's what a conference call is. If we're going to replicate the human experience, it's going to involve lots of different applications. We need to have them be based on the same precepts of the Internet that we now know and love, but sometimes forget.
Discover the benefits of scalable backbone and network services for application and cloud providers.
Network automation is gaining momentum. Here's how you can drive this powerful technology to its full potential.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
