isen.blog

Adam Gifford, business reporter for the NZ Herald, did an interview with me when I came to NZ in 2003 to help launch the Auckland fibre network now known as Vector. A visit to kiwidom would not be complete without a chat. He can get me to say stuff that seems smarter than I have a right to seem. Here's a snip of my interview a couple weeks ago:

[Gifford] asked [me] what had changed since he was here two years ago.

"The big thing I didn't predict, and I see as huge danger to the stupid network, is the emergence of deep packet inspection and other forms of traffic classification and the telephone companies' attempts to build consortiums around UMS (unified messaging), IPsphere and basically trying to, if not put the toothpaste back in the tube then build a new tube around the toothpaste," Isenberg says.

"They want to get back into the value chain and now they are pushing the technical and protocol initiatives to do it.

"I see it as a huge danger. It threatens to make barriers in the middle of the network, barriers to innovation. So if a new application comes along without a revenue stream but it [needs] the latest, newest, fastest internet, it does need to make some kind of deal with the telephone companies.

"That threatens the old idea of two guys in a garage trying something out, or three guys in Estonia inventing Skype. It will make it harder for disruptive innovation to occur."

And despite the telephone companies' insistence they know what their customers want and can deliver it better than Google or Yahoo or some other provider on the edge of the stupid network, Isenberg says the customers are saying something different.

"The mobile space is starting to look interesting. There are reports that a third of iphones are unlocked, which is amazing given they are taking them out of the Apple upgrade stream so they don't get bricked, and they forced Apple to release its developer toolkit," he says.

[snip]

"Then there is [open source phone project] Openmoko, which cuts the carrier out of the direct value chain."

His answer on how to achieve internet leadership is fibre - lots of it, especially to the home.

[snip]

Whole article here.

Technorati Tags: DavidIsenberg, NetworkNeutrality, OpenAccess, OpenMoko, Stupid Network