<div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><font face="Calibri">In traditional telephony call termination revenues are shared between operators and are based on negotiated interconnection rates, in a regulated environment, rather than the size and number of subscribers on the network.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> (I stand to be corrected) </span>Developing countries for a long time have benefited from revenues generated from this international settlement scheme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, these revenues are rapidly being eroded by VoIP, which is encouraged by 'loosely regulated' flat rate pricing of internet bandwidth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The issue internet interconnection is based on the fact that international ISPs have no incentive to enter shared-cost peering with ISPs developing countries thus forcing them to incur the full cost of transmitting international traffic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What incentives need to be put in place to encourage shared-cost peering?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Content development? </font></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><font face="Calibri"></font></span> </div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><font face="Calibri">There is raging debate on "network neutrality"; with network operators seeking to price network access on the basis of utilization in a bid to manage network congestion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In the US, for example the recent Comcast case has resulted in the regulator, FCC, ruling that Comcast 'discriminatory' network management practices were illegal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To overcome the challenge of network congestion several proposals have been made including the introduction of bandwidth metered services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Vint Cerf, Google's chief internet evangelist, has proposed that ISPs should "introduce transmission caps allowing users to purchase access to the Internet at a given minimum data rate, which would be guaranteed even during times of congestion." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Net neutrality is definitely an issue we may need to consider with reference to the current developments in national and international fibre optic projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><font face="Calibri">References:</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10007079-93.html"><font face="Calibri">http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10007079-93.html</font></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><font face="Calibri">Regards</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><font face="Calibri">Mwende</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><font face="Calibri">Disclaimer: Comments are author's own.</font></span></p><br><br>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 8/13/08, <b class="gmail_sendername">John Walubengo</b> <<a href="mailto:jwalu@yahoo.com">jwalu@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Plse feel free to belatedly contribute on Day 1 or 2 themes, jst remember to pick the correct subject line. Meanwhile today we should discuss one of IG issues that touch squarely on the retail cost of Internet Service in developing countries- the Internet Interconnection Charges (IIC, in short)<br>
<br>This issue is fairly complex and explosive but we could try and understand if we used a simplified model for Mobile Phone Interconnection Charges and Relationships. Consider mobile phone company, X with 8million customers and mobile phone company, Y with 2 million customers. Each company is supposed to compensate (pay) the other for terminating calls originating from the other. In such a relationship, the bigger company X, can chose to dictate how much the smaller company, Y pays it to terminate the 'Y' calls to its bigger 'X' network/customers.<br>
<br>This is losely similar to what is called Transit relationship on the Internet. The big internet networks (Tier 1 and 2 Internet Backbone Providers) in US/Europe get to dictate how much the smaller networks in developing countries need to pay in order to terminate their internet requests for email, web, dns, voip and other services into their Network. Even our much celebrated TEAMS, EASsy and other projects cannot escape these Transit Interconnection Costs. Ofcourse if you do not like their Interconnection Charges you are free to take a walk into nowhere (read: stay offline).<br>
<br>Another relationship does exist, the Peer-to-Peer relationship which is equivalent to Mobile phone company Y and company X both having equal or similar number of customers/value e.g. 5million each. In such a relationship, the two Internet Backbone/Service providers chose NOT to charge each other anything. Traffic between the two is exchanged reciprically for free but below each of this big Networks are the smaller networks (read African networks), that must pay Transit Charges. Put bluntly, Africa and other developing countries are subsidizing Internet Costs for the rich nations in the North.<br>
<br>Many studies have been carried out to get us out of this fix such as the Halfway-propositions, the ICAIS, etc but todate the status quo remains. The standard response has remained 'If it current interconnection models are working, why should you try and fix them?'<br>
<br>1 day for comments, corrections and/or proposals on this theme.<br><br>walu.<br><br>Ref: for some of the Studies:<br>International Charging Arrangements for Internet Services, Module I, ICAIS, p.3<br><a href="http://www.tmdenton.com/pub/reports/icais_mod1_ch1.pdf">http://www.tmdenton.com/pub/reports/icais_mod1_ch1.pdf</a><br>
<br>The Half-Way Proposition.<br><a href="http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act_130.html">http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act_130.html</a><br><br><br><br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>
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