[kictanet] Day 3 of 10: Day 3 - Hierarchy of IGO & ISPs

[Lucy Kimani]

Walubengo:

As the newest kid on the block, and totally biased:-)

Here is my pesa nane:

I see this discussion in two ways, first I agree that the separation b/w
IGO and ISPs be dissolved but not limited to only the IGOs, but this
should swing both ways meaning that ISPs are also free to be IGOs without
having to apply for the different licenses to build their own backbones if
they so desire.  Issue would of course be the frequencies how to share
this very scarce resource fairly among all without discremination
especially knowing what we already know about the spectrum allocation so
far, I think this is a tall order indeed.

Secondly I doubt expanding the IGOs scope of reach will resolve the issue
which is reducing costs for the consumer.  The idea sounds great but in
reality the IGOs can barely keep up with their current workload and adding
more on their plate would be a disaster in my opinion.  I would not wish
any consumers the pain of dealing directly with the IGOs and leave them to
do what they do best -- building infrastructure and I would say we leave
them to that until we have fibre available throughout Kenya then perhaps
that would be an ideal time to review the situation.

Finally, I would leave the ISP/IGO relationship as is, but with freedom
for either to move either way simply because market forces can be counted
on to dictate the trend, and you can bet right now there are a number of
CEOs working over time to counter Alunite's initiative because thats what
they are paid to do.. Think about Netzero who offer a free service in the
U.S but are still able to survive in that ISP space because they serve a
certain clientele.  Consumers are well on their way to getting what they
deserve and I say Amen to that.

LK

> Thanx Alex for your comments on Day 1, for a moment I was
> bracing myself for a 10 day Online monologue :-(! as
> opposed to the planned Online dialogue. Incidentally,
> belated Comments on previous days themes shall remain
> welcome - just click on the correct subject line and make
> your appropriate contributions...
>
> Anyway back to today's theme- The Question of Internet
> Gateway Operators (IGO, the Wholesalers of Internet
> Bandwidth) vs Internet Service Providers (ISPs, the
> Retailers of Internet Bandwidth).
>
> The report recommends that seperation b/w IGO and ISPs be
> dissolved.  This is because the current structure
> Internet-> IGO -> ISP -> Consumers is considered
> unnecessarily too long.  Apparently the ISP as we know them
> today are not adding significant value - instead they are
> adding cost to the service and probably degraging the
> quality of the Internet eventually delivered to the
> Customers.
>
> Cutting down the middle-man (ISPs) may offset the costs and
> while increasing the quality of the internet eventually
> delivered to the Consumer.  Is this assumption true? Does
> allowing IGO to directly deal with Consumer result in
> cheaper Internet Services while improving on the quality of
> the internet?
>
> 1 day on this theme, at the least, I do hope to get some
> reactions at from any IGOs and ISPs.
>
> walu.
>
>
>
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