subj.: The Cook Report On Internet
The Cook Report on Internet is a for fee monthly industry report which
is written and almost single-handedly managed by one Gordon Cook. My
opinion, after reading his works for several years, is that Gordon works
quite hard and diligently at what he does. It shows in the depth and
quality of each monthly issue I receive.
cookreport.com
I've found Gordon's scope of research and reporting to be extraordinary,
sometimes taking him to the other side of the globe in order to fetch and
report information concerning the evolution of the 'net in all of its
international flavors. He covers the Internet's infrastructure, the service
providers' in depth plans in ways which are truly uncommon for their
candor, its politics, and the factors which affect its governance, consensus
and the integration of the 'net with other established industry players.
These players include, but are not limited to:
- the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force),
- Service Providers, ISPs, ITSPs, ASPs, NSPs, CableOps, etc.
- hardware and software vendors,
- pundits, consultants, authors,
- the Internet Society, IANA/ICANN, ad hoc committees
- regulatory agencies, ITU, Bellcore, standards committes,
- inter-forum working- and inter-working groups and committees
It was only recently that I realized that The Report has a button which
allows one to pull down executive summaries going back to 1993. A
quick glance at the topics in these summaries reads like a history lesson
which begins at about the time that the 'net went commercial. I commend
this reference to anyone who would like to refresh on what's transpired on
the 'net over the past ten years, or to anyone who needs a bootstrap.
The Executive Summaries can be found at:
cookreport.com
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And a nicely-done, albeit dated in parts, glossary of Internet terms with
hot links to related definitions can be found at:
cookreport.com
Even in those instances where dating is evident in a term's definition, value is present through the sense of historical perspective which is offered.
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The following is an executive summary from the January 2000 issue which
I found to be highly relevant to the discussions we've had here recently in
this forum on open access on cable TV systems. The one aspect which it
brings out that I tend to lose site of is that in Canada cable systems are
regarded as common carriers by the Canadian CRTC. So? Should that
matter? Apparently, it has. Read on, and enjoy.
Regards, Frank Coluccio
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January 2000 Executive Summary: 3rd Party Access:
cookreport.com
The Story Behind Third Party Access to Cable Networks in Canada
by Francois Menard pp. 10-18
This article by Francois Menard covers the on going efforts in Canada to
determine the conditions under which Canadian ISPs shall have access to
broadband capable cable network infrastructure. Since the cable TV industry
in Canada for several years has enjoyed common carrier status, the mater of
network layer interconnection between what Menard refers to as the cable
carriers and ISPs is subject to being decided on very different grounds than in
the United States. Canadian cable carriers are under legal order by the
Canadian CRTC to open their networks to ISP interconnection. Menard's
article describes what he sees as efforts on the part of the Canadian cable
industry to circumvent CRTC orders to unbundle access by ISPs to the
TCP/IP level (layer 3) of the protocol stack.
As he discusses the evolution of the technical positions taken by the two sides,
Menard clarifies the business models of cable carriers versus ISPs. He
describes a number of useful insights into the difference. These insights are
leading him to some important and regulatory paradigm shifting conclusions.
These are:
1. That the telco and cable business are built from top to bottom individually
owned and vertically integrated and controlled networks;
2. that having dealt with such networks for more than half a century the
regulatory mind set is framed by the vertical architectural structure;
3. this mind set looks at the Internet vertically rather than horizontally
according to each individual layer of the protocol stack;
4. but that this mind set is now a flawed and economically hostile way of
approaching what is becoming the business model of the Internet - namely
service providers where each is responsible for their own networks and
practice non discriminatory interconnection;
5. that ISPs now offer new extremely cost effective technology for building
global stupid networks by means these horizontal inter connections;
6. that to the extent that the regulators are unable to understand that if they
don't come to think both in horizontal layer 3 terms and in terms of layer 3
unbundling to facilitate layer 3 interconnects between ISPs, using network
infrastructure that may or may not be owned by a third party, the Internet
revolution may be short circuited by the triumph of the economic interests of
the old, vertically integrated legacy networks.
Menard hopes by February 2000 to demonstrate this in clear detail in a cable
carrier follow on study to his "Netheads versus Bellheads" document of mid
1999. His paper in this issue of the COOK Report is a first step in his
direction. |
