Top Controversies

At&t T-mobile Merger

The deal proposed by AT&T will make the largest cell phone company in the US. They will effectively become the only nation-wide GSM cell phone company in the US. The US government has sued to stop this. In my opinion it will give consumers less choose and hurt competition.

Net Neutrality

The idea that stresses no restrictions by ISP -- Internet service providers or governments on consumers access to networks that participate in the internet.  Network neutrality would prevent restrictions on content, sites, or devices. Telecom companies want to impose a tiered model in order to remove competition, create artificial scarcity, and force subscribers to buy their services over others. I believe net neutrality to be very important to preserve our current internet freedom.

Community Broadband

 Is the attempt by grassroots groups or municipal agencies to to provide viable alternative to traditional ISPs.

Community Broadband can include wireless internet, phone, TV service and Internet. many states have passed or consider law barring local government from providing Broadband services to their residents. I belive that Broadband is becoming as important as electrical power or water. Local community should be able to decide if they want to statrt  community broadband to compete against private companies.

Gps and lightsquared

 LightSquared is a ground-based and satellite based next-generation 4G network  The network is currently opposed by Save Our GPS Coalition, an industry-standard group that promotes GPS issues in Congress. They say that if the network were to be deployed as currently planned it would have severe affects on GPS.  That it would put consumers at risk of losing GPS signal in North America.

ISP Affiliate Program 

ISP used a method of generating additional cash through advertising based on mistyped URLs in a web browesr.The results was searches of certain well-known brands by users where not being provided by the intended search engine. Instead they were being provided through affiliate marketing networks to earn revenue for the ISP. This all was done without consumer knowledge.

LightSquared vs GPS

The US government is currently reviewing plans for the deployment of the nation's newest 4g network. The network is currently opposed by Save Our GPS Coalition -- an industry-standard group that promotes GPS issues in Congress. They say that if the network were to be deployed as currently planned it would have severe affects on GPS.  That it would put small airplanes, industrial farm equipment and consumers at risk of losing GPS signal in North America. In short the end of GPS.

LightSquared is a ground-based and satellite based next-generation 4G network using LTE -- Long-term Evolution which is the fastest and most powerful cellular data standard currently being developed. Their plan is to use a combination of ground based towers and the world largest communication satellite to build a network that would cover the whole United States including rural areas that have no access to the internet now.

             The controversy stems from the fact that lightsquare will be operating its satellite network in two frequency blocks -- one right above and one right below the current GPS.  The GPS alliance says because GPS is such a weak signal GPS will get lost in the noise –it’s like whispering while people shout in the room. If you listen to them it would put public safety at risk, in particular as small planes as they use GPS to navigate. It will also interfere with farmers harvesting crops as they use it to plot the best route in harvesting their felids. In their view this will cause a GPS apocalypse and put the public in danger. They want the FCC to put a stop to the plan and go back to the drawing board.

Light squared has responded to this by issuing statements saying that it will attempt to minimize spectrum interference with the GPS signal. It has also stated it will only using only half of the spectrum space they have in its first deployment. They say that this 10MHz portion of its allotted spectrum "poses no risk to the users of over 99 percent of GPS devices” and the remaining 1 percent of GPS devices can have filters installed to prevent any interference. They add that the problem is with the GPS devices, as they were badly designed not to filter out interference with other signal bands. They point out that all parties involved knew the potential interference risk back in 2003, when the FCC approved the network's build-out. The FCC even put a clause in its original plan that made clear "addressing the interference concerns regarding GPS must be completed to the Commission's satisfaction before LightSquared commences offering commercial service".

LightSquared’s billionaire backer Phil Falcone has gone as far as to point his finger at AT&T and Verizon, claiming both are trying to stop competition. As they are both members of the Save Our GPS Coalition trying to stop LightSquared. The fact that LightSquared will be selling to smaller wireline and wireless communication service providers is the reason they oppose the plan. Their network will give smaller regional players like Metro PCS and others access to a nation-wide 4G network without having to build out their own network. LightSquared recently announced that it had signed a 15-year agreement to share 3G and 4G with Sprint – the 3^rd largest cell company and the biggest rival to AT&T and Verizon.

I don’t want to see a GPS apocalypse, my hope is that the interference problems are resolved  in a timely manner. What I find most interesting is the LightSquared plan  has been out for public review for over 7 years and just now is having issues raised.  At the same time that AT&T is trying to merge with tmoble(the 4^th largest cell carrier) because they say the only way it can provide nationwide 4g network is to buy up more spectrum.  At the same time they oppose the LightSquared plan which will bring in more competition into the market.

Top Online Blogs on Internet Technolgy

This is a list of what i consider the best blogs and websites that are foresed on internet technolgy. I read most of these sites daily.

This blog focuses on technology news and information. The articles range from news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its in-depth features and long articles that go into specific detail on their subjects. Their stories are unique and not commonly found on the internet. I especially enjoyed the technical analysis used in their articles. In particular their tech policy and telecom sections are one of the best on the net. These types of issues are a very important to me, I hope to include them in my blog.

Engadget is a technology blog network made up of four different blogs. All of the blogs are greard towered  daily up to the minute and late breaking new of coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. Their blogs includes Engadget Classic -- the original blog reporting on all different types of consumer electronics, Engadget Mobile -- focused on cell phones and mobile tech, Engadget HD -- HDTV and video services, and Engadget Alt -- everything form NASA space news to manned multicopters. They frequently report about industry leaks, rumors, product announcements and FCC filings. I find myself most interested in Engadget Mobile because I find my self wanting the newest cell phone, they are the best places to fined out that's the next big smart phone.

The blog offers technology news and analysis, with a focus on new start up companies, products, and websites. They focuses on news scoops , they tend to run stories that a lot of other blogs don’t run. They’re not always right, but always interesting and frequently first to publish. What I find interesting about techcrunch is that they skirt the lines between gossip and news, especially when they talk about the people behind the companies in Silicon Valley.

Written by Dan Jasper the CEO of Sonic.net, one of the largest independent ISP (Internet Service Provider) in Northern California. The blog focuses on issues like Internet privacy, consumer rights and telecommunications. The blog offers a unique view of the telecommunications industry form the point of a insider. What I find most fascinating about the blog is how Sonic.net looks at itself compared to the rest of the industry, especially their much larger competitors, and the struggles they have had to gone through to find new customers and rollouts there servers.

This blog offers analysis and opinions on startups, new technologies, broadband and online games. Their audience includes technology industry leaders, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs. Their articles are more in depth than most tech blogs and offices a more industry focused approach. I find their broadband section extremely interesting. Their writing style makes complicated business and technology concepts easy to understand. They have a great ability of taking dry research papers and showing the reader the impact on business and society in a interesting manner.

Wired is a monthly magazine, on-line periodical and blog. They report on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics. They’re known for coining new terms. Since they have been around since the early ninetys they are the oldest blog on my list. The reason I find them interesting and useful is because the credibility of the stories on Wired assures me they have done their best to fully research the topic on hand.

The blog provides news, insight, and analysis of current events in both the United States and worldwide telecommunications markets. The reason I like this blog is because it is focused on a single subject, mainly the telecommunications business. Many of the articles are ones that tend to be more obscure but very interesting nonetheless.

 

The New York Time and the San Jose mercury news are  how the general public views technology. Bits cover business, innovation, technology and society. Their bits.blog is made up of the writers from the New York Time writing in a blog style, but many of their articles end up in their print editions of the paper as well. Because the Mercury New is base in the center of the tech sector they run story that other newspapers wont.

Even though this is not technically a blog, but I find myself learning about a lot of technology stories from them. Twit is a video and audio podcast network. Currently the network hosts nineteen podcasts covering various topics including the internet, computer security, Microsoft, Apple, and current technology news. They both have weekly and daily formats. The two podcasts that I would recommend are: This Week in Tech and Tech News Today.

Sony BMG hypocrisy when it comes to piracy

Sony BMG one of the Big Four music companies and one of the most fervent supporters of the antipiracy efforts of the RIAA and IFPI in their effort to stop piracy of movies\music, is now it's being sued for software piracy.

This all started with a support call by a Sony BMG IT staff member to a French software company. PointDev, is the maker of Windows administration tools including Ideal Migration. The Sony BMG employee supplied a pirated license code for Ideal Migration while on a call to their support center. PointDev was able to mandate a seizure of Sony BMG's assets. A subsequent raid of Sony BMG revealed that the software was illegally installed on four servers. This led to a lawsuit by PointDev which it is claiming over $475,000 in damages against Sony BMG.

This alone does not seem to be signs of larger scale piracy at Sony BMG but if you talk to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) they believe that up to 47% of all software installed on Sony BMG's computers could be pirated. The BSA is a trade group established to represent a number of the largest software makers in trying to stop software piracy. In the recent year they have focused their effort on audits of company to find pirated software running on their computers. They even offer a bounty for information of companies that run pirated software.

What makes this case so ironic is the fact that Sony BMG is so fervent in fighting piracy when it comes to the movie and music industry. One the best example of this is the Sony RootKit. Sony BMG included the software on about 100 music CDs. This software was automatically installed on to desktop computers when customers tried to play the CDs. This was done without alerting the user that this software was being installed. The software interfered with the way the operating system plays CDs, prevent any media player or ripper software from accessing the music tracks. The software had a second affect, it opened security holes that allowed viruses to in, and caused other problems. This was all done to stop piracy.

I hope the irony of this entire case is not lost on the lawyers for Sony BMG.

Comcast and Secret Policies

The FCC has finally commented on how they would deal with Comcast in the aftermath of their applications interference scandal. Federal Communications Commission chair, Kevin Martin on Friday told an audience at Stanford University that he had been troubled by Comcast's behavior. He had also stated that the agency is "ready, willing, and able" to deal with the problem. In my opinion the FCC should have acted weeks ago. They should immediately draw up new rules to govern the running of broadband. What is need is a clear set of rules to govern broadband internet services.

This controversy started back in January, with an Associated Press story that revealed that Comcast was interfering with Bit Torrent traffic by sending TCP "reset" packets to end users. In the very face of an amounting body of evidence, Comcast still denied allegations that it specifically targeted Bit Torrent and other applications. Vice president of Comcast, David Cohen even went as far as stating that the company's traffic control measures conform fully to the FCC's definition of "reasonable network management". Only after months of stonewalling did they admit to the truth, that they were not only using traffic shaping practices on P2P traffic but to Lotus Notes email services. This wasn’t the first time that Comcast was not up front. Last year it was reported that they had an Invisible Bandwidth Limit. They stated that it would shut down customers who went above what the company considered average use. The problem was they never gave a hard number for average use, making it difficult to know whether a user was in danger of being shutdown.

Comcast says that it needs to limit bandwidth-consumption of users to keep the quality of services. Their cable networks work by connecting homes up to local nodes, with every home on a particular node drawing from the same pool of bandwidth. The typical node servicing up to 450 homes as few as 15 high bandwidth users maxing out their connections, all 450 homes could see their network access impeded enough to be noticeable.

The problem with the Comcast traffic shaping is that nowhere in their license agreements or in any of their ads do they state that they’re using these measures. Comcast and all ISP have the right to limit user bandwidth but customers have the right to know that their service providers are doing it. That is why the FCC needs to make a bill of rights for consumers’ when it comes to the internet. The FCC should force all ISP to disclose full all bandwidth-caps and the use of packet shaping. I personally left Comcast for ATT mainly because of these unannounced policies. I just hope that ATT starts to use the “Comcastic” model of the internet.

YouTube, Pakistan and BGP

Late on the 24th of February 2008, YouTube became unreachable from almost the entire Internet world. A close look to where the internet traffic was heading showed that packets sent to YouTube were flowing to Pakistan. The interesting part was that the Pakistan government had just placed a ban on the popular online video site. What happened was that Pakistan Telecom placed an address block route to YouTube's servers in an attempt to "black hole" access to the service. Instead of just blocking the path to YouTube's servers for only users inside of Pakistan, it blocked all traffic to almost all users around. This event points out how we, as internet users, take for granted that the internet works and that these service problems could get worse.

On Sunday February 24th a Pakistan inter-ministerial committee ordered all Internet service providers to block the YouTube website for "blasphemous" content and materials that were offensive to Islam. In response the Pakistan Telecom decided to "black hole" YouTube. They simply advertised a different route to YouTube on to their top leave routers. The new route link did not go anywhere. This was a simple measure to filter access to the service from inside of Pakistan. Here is where thing took a bad turn, the routing information escaped from Pakistan Telecom to its ISP PCCW in Hong Kong. From PCCW it spared to the rest of the world. So any packets heading to YouTube would end up in Pakistan Telecom's black hole.

To see how this simple access block went so bad, you have to understand Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR). BGP is the standard that is used to maintain the routing tables between top leave routers on the internet. CIDR is the way IP addresses are interpreted by the routers. It allows address blocks to be given out in powers of two blocks using a slash after the IP addresses. For example 256 =/24, 512=/23, 1024=/22. Using this system creates a side effect, an IP address can now fall within multiple address ranges. For example, a router could have both 10.0.0.0/8 and 10.10.0.0/16 in its routing table. So they use the longest match first, smallest address block, with the largest number after the slash, takes precedence. Pakistan Telecom advertised a route for 208.65.153.0/24 to its provider. This is a more specific route than the ones used by YouTube (208.65.152.0/22). Both routes were on the routing table but because the longest match first rule, most routers would choose to send traffic to Pakistan Telecom instead of YouTube's own network.

One of the ways that this could have been avoided is by having ISP (like PCCW) limit the BGP advertisements it will accept from a customer. Also BGP vulnerability has been known for a very long time, and until recently only smaller accidents have happen with any frequency. Efforts to make the BGP more robust against this type of accident\attack haven't produced any results. There are routing databases where network operators can register their IP address blocks for the use of generating filters automatically. The problem is, since it’s up to everyone to register their own address blocks, and most people don't, the filters generated from these databases often do more harm than good. The internet can be more fragile then people think. One of the oldest myths on the web is the internet is the US government design the internet to survive a nuclear attack. The truth is the ARPANET (for runner of the internet) was designed to survive network losses, but the reason was that the switching nodes and network links were not very reliable, even without nuclear attacks.

Pirate Bay vs. IFPI

The Pirate Bay, the world's largest Bit Torrent tracker, has lost a legal battle in Denmark, that could cause a ripple effect and drastically change the fate and happiness of hackers worldwide. Since the establishment of the Pirate Bay, it has been inevitable that a legality issue would surface. Many international organization have tried and failed to shutdown The Pirate Bay, in it's native Sweden. They have tried to fine them, block ISP's from accessing them and confiscating their servers. All these attempts have been defeated due to the fact that under Danish law, the Pirate Bay is a legal site and has done nothing wrong, in that it hosts no illicit content or material. The Pirate Bay has also made preparations so that even if the Danish government were to close down their serve, they would have back ups through out the world. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) won it's lawsuit last week against Danish Internet service provider (ISP), Tele2. The Danish court has ordered Tele2 to block access to the site because it is used as a means to traffic copyrighted materials between users . It seems the ban is having the opposite affect that the IFPI had hoped for. The Pirate Bay is now getting record traffic from users in Denmark and has found ways of help Tele2 users to get around the ban.

The Pirate Bay started in Sweden as a way for users to find music, movies and other content using the Bit Torrent protocol. Bit Torrent is a way of distributing large amounts of data without the original distributor incurring the entire costs of hardware or bandwidth resources. When data is distributed each user supplies pieces of the data to newer users, reducing the burden on any given person. To share a file users first create a torrent file. This small file contains metadata which holds information about the files that are shared and about the tracker, the computer that coordinates the file distribution. Users who want to download these files get a torrent file for it, and connect to the specified tracker, which tells them which other users have the pieces of the file to download.

The interesting part of the law suit is that the Pirate Bay hosts no pirated content. It only hosts the torrent files needed to download the content. Also the Danish court singled out Tele2, making it the only ISP in the country blocking the site, while other ISPs were allowed to continue serving up Pirate Bay. This move signals a dangerous shift in the law, as ISPs could also be forced to censor sites that are providing to host illegal content. In oppressive countries the government is the one that decides what information the people can get and what should be censored. In this case IFPI, a private organization is deciding what content people should have access to.