[Chapter-delegates] Proposed law to ban Skype in Russia?

[Alejandro Pisanty]

Patrick,

thanks for opening up this angle.

I think that the chances that a telco will go from profit to broke in a 
short time due to Skype alone are very small, and thhat risk is therefore 
limited.

But they will fight every penny; especially in single-provider conditions, 
where the lack of competition has allowed the commpany to not become agile 
and effective in adapting to change, which is what one would wish and what 
many do manage to do.

So probably we come back to the view that for the health of the Internet, 
competitive telco environments are better; and we still have to remember 
that in some really small economies this may not be totally feasible.

Now as Fred asks, what is ISOC's view, what do we need as chapters? In 
thisinstance, I think it is the discussion itself, plus documentd cases 
and reading and rallying materials, in local language or at least in 
nCyrillic alphapet languages, that our colleagues in each country can use 
to intervene intelligently in public-policy discussionns in-country.

And, of course, technology development that makes IP networks and their 
implementation supportive of the features you mention, like stability and 
power-up such that they can support emergency and geo-localization calls 
when required. The technology exists, the standards exist, so it is only 
partly an IETF issue, and much more, spreading knowledge so that the 
people in the chapters can demand and of course build their/our own 
networks to this higher functionality standard.

We must all remember thaht we still cannot deliver electrical power over 
wireless when we build networks that will be mission-critical, right? - 
and that includes the home!

Yours,

Alejandro Pisanty


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      Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
UNAM, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico

Tels. +52-(1)-55-5105-6044, +52-(1)-55-5418-3732

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On Sun, 16 Aug 2009, Patrick Vande Walle wrote:

> Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:57:54 +0200
> From: Patrick Vande Walle <patrick at vande-walle.eu>
> To: Fred Baker <fred at cisco.com>
> Cc: Chapter Delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
> Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Proposed law to ban Skype in Russia?
> 
>
>
> Fred Baker wrote, On 16/8/09 03:14:
>> It's not a new behavior; a number of monopoly telecoms have had their
>> respective governments outlaw internet-based competition. It's easier
>> than having a competitive product.
> Except it is not always possible to have a competitive product,
> depending on local economic circumstances. Most telcos these days do not
> make much money out of local calls. They typically make profit on the
> international calls and mobile phone roaming charges, if they offer such
> a service.
>
> If they are losing much of their income  due to Skype or  similar
> services, their existence is in danger. It would be very bad for any
> country if the telecom operators went bankrupt or at least had to scale
> down their operations to match their income. They would no more be able
> to invest in upgrading their network, for broadband Internet access, for
> example.  We still need the reliability of the fixed network for
> emergency calls.
>
> So, what looks at first sight like healthy competition may result in a
> bigger damages if we do not handle cases with nuances.
>
> -- 
> Patrick Vande Walle
> Blog: http://patrick.vande-walle.eu
> Twitter: http://twitter.vande-walle.eu
> facebook: http://facebook.vande-walle.eu
>
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