[IP] HOT - I believe monitoring wrong, but Europe believes practical

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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From: Dave Burstein [daveb@dslprime.com]
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 11:24 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: I believe monitoring wrong, but Europe believes practical

 Dave

The BBC report you just posted with the statement "net providers said legal and technical
barriers prohibit them from being anything other than a 'mere conduit'," seems reasonable to many.

It won't win the issue in Europe, however, because Deutsche Telekom is saying they will specifically do that. At what I believe massive cost (probably around $1B, but no hard data), DT has built a network designed to track "Every session, of every customer, all of the time," as their people openly discussed at the BBWF in Berlin a few months ago.  Key suppliers Siemens, Alcatel, and Cisco at the same event presented on how they could do that, each suggesting their equipment was the best for the purpose. Other European carriers are considering similar, with unconfirmed rumors Telecom Italia is doing so.

DT explained this was so they could sell QOS to content providers. This post is about whether the technology can be made to work with sufficient spending; let's discuss Net neutrality issues elsewhere.

I know  the chief British regulator, Ed Richards of OFCOM, knows this issue because the DT plan was discussed at length when he visited a Columbia seminar (including my strong statements against it.) His German peer, Matthias Kurth, and the EU Commissioner, Vivane Reding, have also discussed it at public meetings. So if we don't want monitoring, we need to show why it's wrong, not rely on the claim it's technically impractical.

    Neither DT nor AT&T have put this equipment to extensive use, but their opinion that it can be done will convince most in Europe. The telcos in Europe are enormously attracted to the idea, as numerous consultants and manufacturers suggest they will make a heck of a lot of money selling services. That's totally unproven, but my take after two visits to Europe is that most (70-90%) of the people in the telecom business think that's the future.

     These are important issues, so getting the facts right is worth the effort.

Dave Burstein
Editor, DSL Prime

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