Beginnings and end-games
There was a big BusinessWeek story recently about the enormous contributions cell phones can make in developing countries — and particularly in Africa.
‘Mobile technology has brought many fruits, and no bad things,’ insists Isaac Mahenia, a schoolteacher and part-time farmer in Muruguru. Abraham Maragua. . .agrees that life is finally getting better in the village, and that mobile phones are part of the change.
I thought this was a pretty strong and interesting story, and I took it at face value.
But other people whose opinions I respect saw this differently - as an advertisement for the mobile phone industry in Africa. And, even more strongly, as an excuse for developed nations to limit their investment in development. Wireless doesn’t help with access to the internet unless there are fiber connections (somewhere) to connect to, and without basic infrastructure and a certain stability those fiber or copper connections won’t be safe. Infrastructure like this (fiber, copper, water, electricity) requires longterm investment. Wireless isn’t a substitute for all of that. Subscribers will be sharing scarce connections to the internet, and in the end the country won’t make all that much progress. But wireless carriers will indeed do well.
Someone sent me a second story that relates to this one. It’s from newspapers in California decrying the unbelievable lobbying strength of the carriers there. The headline tells the story: “Activists Say Industry Money Silences Pro-Consumer Bills.”
The industry doesn’t want people to pay pro-rated termination fees, arguing that high set fees subsidize the free-ish cellphones that consumers enjoy. So switching is hard. The industry doesn’t want to allow unlocked phones (evidenced yet again by Verizon’s lawsuit last week). The industry doesn’t want clear disclosures about taxes and fees associated with phone bills.
At the same time, lots of cell-phone-company money goes to Republicans in California, and “[o]f the $7.2 million handed out by telecom companies with cell phone divisions since 2005, more than $600,000 has gone to the California Democratic Party.” So bills that might require consumer-friendly behavior in California are dying.
These two stories go together, in a sense. In the first, new, developing-world consumers are benefiting from cellphones and aren’t aware that it isn’t a good idea to skip infrastructural steps — and the wireless carriers are doing well. In the second, “old,” developed-world consumers are benefiting from cellphones and aren’t aware of how locked-in they are to high termination fees and locked-up equipment — and the wireless carriers are doing well. No conventional means will have much effect on any of this.
Comments
One Response to “Beginnings and end-games”
Got something to say?
Speaking of “end-games”…
As a so-called ICANN Director (unelected and planted by Esther Dyson and others) have you considered what the ICANN End-Game will be ?
ICANN was only created to do some Proof-of-Concept market trials
to expand the name-space and prove that the root-servers will not
fail. That of course was a failure and the .COM servers are now the
root, and all future expansion can be easily constructed using the
.COM platform.
ICANN is no longer needed in name-space stewardship. Windows
Vista users are discoversing that Peer-Name-Resolution-Protocol
PNRP replaces any need for ICANN or even a central registry. The
mesh of Visat machines, IS the Registry. Game over for ICANN.
As for the IANA game of handing out /8s, it should be clear that
somewhere between the U.S. FCC and the major carriers those
decisions can easily be made. Note the recent /8 that AT&T now
uses, without apparently any “ICANN Process”. Again, Game over
for ICANN.
That sort of brings the ICANN Directors to The ICANN End Game.
As long as $50,000,000 in domain name taxes roll in the door there
will have to be someone to cash the checks and sit on the beach.
With 50 people and $1,000,000 each, that may not be hard to
round up some people to do that. They really have nothing more
to do. Again, game over for ICANN.
What is the ICANN End-Game..?..have a gala party at the Sony
Theatre in Los Angeles and a Red Carpet entourage of A-list
party-goers flowing in from Malibu and Hollywood. The media
coverage should be great, as they ask people who pays for the
entire affair…and the answer is “who cares” !!! not whois