[Bp_localcontent] Regional Specificities

Sat Jul 12 04:00:25 EDT 2014

Hi Susan – A couple of links at the end of this email references UXP’s and broadband penetration (predominantly from ITU stats) in Oceania and elsewhere.

Broadband in today's parlance means little more than a marketing term used to describe any Internet connection that is not dial-up. It has no reference to the technical meaning of the word (the transport of multiple signals and traffic types simultaneously), nor does it have any reference to asynchronous traffic or the ability of the bandwidth to provide equally for uploads and downloads. There are tens of thousands of people across Australia connected to 'broadband' yet unable to upload content due to bandwidth limits and caps.   

The lack of DSLAM’s in .au is an outcome of Government policy to replace ADSL with FTTH. Most of our local analysts agree the situation will worsen over the next decade as population growth and new building approvals exceeds our projected capacity to install FTTH and we now lack incentive to install additional DSLAM’s. 

The situation in regional and rural Australia however is far more dire as the links below attest:

"In a move that will be of little surprise to those who access the internet through NBN satellites, iiNet said this week it is stopping all further connections to the satellite service because of sub-standard performance".

http://www.theland.com.au/news/agriculture/general/news/nbn-satellite-stalls/2678872.aspx

"One of Australia's largest broadband retailers, iiNet, will not sign up any new customers to NBN Co satellite services because capacity problems are slowing broadband speeds to ‘‘be almost unusable’’. The company is calling on other NBN satellite re-sellers to do the same". 

http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/government-it/iinet-stops-selling-nbn-satellite-due-to-almost-unusable-speeds-20131118-hv3j3.html

"In many cases, customers with no access to any other high-speed services have had their internet and mobile phone data reduced to speeds of less than half that of an old dial-up modem despite being promised speeds of six megabytes a second. Tens of thousands of other families who want or need a service have been told they cannot sign up because the over-subscribed service is so clogged with traffic that at peak times it can take up to two days for large files to be sent".

http://www.news.com.au/national/nbn-fiasco-stephen-conroys-satellite-internet-lost-in-space-slows-to-a-crawl/story-fncynjr2-1226837699565

IXP’s :

http://www.bgp4.as/internet-exchanges

Broadband penetration:

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats6.htm

ITU 2012 figures:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_penetration

Re your question on tromboning; I’m not entirely sure of the proper meaning in a Telco context, however in IT nowadays we focus on anti-tromboning through the deployment of MIMO network topologies and network border nodes. In practice this is so an end node (user) can communicate with another end node (user) without having to route through the central carrier network. The benefit is much lower cost (often free connectivity between all local end nodes) and less traffic ($$) on the carrier network. When used with technologies like caching (use of local proxy cache’s etc.) it’s another way we can improve connectivity while reducing the reliance on Telco carrier networks. A WIFI breadcrumbs mesh is a typical example. 

This sort of tech and routing has been deployed for some years in large corporate and Govt networks although we are really only beginning to see it enter the public space.

Hope the above helps,

Regards, Don

From: Susan Chalmers [mailto:susan at susanchalmers.com] 
Sent: Saturday, 12 July 2014 3:25 AM
To: dg_cameron at bigpond.com
Cc: Michele Neylon - Blacknight; bp_localcontent at intgovforum.org
Subject: Re: Re: [Bp_localcontent] Regional Specificities

Dear Don,

Many thanks for your email.

On the research - it would be helpful if you could share the figures and reference links.

On the context - thank you for sharing. Your thoughts on the nebulous definition of broadband alone are insightful. And why there aren't adequate DSLAMs - is it because the ILEC has the keys to the building? Didn't Amazon open a big data centre in Sydney not loo long ago? Last year the NOG community in NZ discussed whether, given Australia's growth, traffic should flow to and fro over Southern Cross Sydney more often than LA. Where has tromboning decreased for countries and why? Dessalegn I believe mentioned edge caching last week. 

There are all valuable questions, the answers to which we have to collect in a very short amount of time. So all insights welcome on Areas 1, 2 and 3.

Cheers,

Susan

On Fri, Jul 11, 2014 at 12:03 AM, Don Cameron <dg_cameron at bigpond.com> wrote:

Hi Susan,

I was wondering about the tech infrastructure question (Area2) - Most of this is well researched and published (how many ICP's and BB penetration), so are you after a more localised perspective of the the reality of the research? In Australia as elsewhere our published research is more than a little glorified by incorporating any bandwidth above 56K as 'broadband', even when such bandwidth is at the limit of mobile or WIFI reception, and/or oversubscribed and essentially one-way satellite offering no scope at all for local hosting. Perhaps the worst of these is where broadband is defined as 'accessible' yet local telephone exchanges lack adequate DSLAM's to provide a service meaning the only option is mobile BB (and once again, no provision for local hosting). It's very hard to gain true insight into the extent of broadband coverage when broadband itself is so loosely defined.

Less researched IMO is the question of hosting location (local or abroad) and this might prove difficult to determine. I previously ran an ISP and today administer a large regional network, and while our logs provide an excellent reference for connectivity and usage rates; what they do not show is how and where people host content. I wonder how many people really know? IBM have a very large data centre in Australia however it is also mirrored elsewhere across the globe. Where does the content live?

Don

------------------------------------------
From: Susan Chalmers <susan at susanchalmers.com>
To: michele at blacknight.com;
CC: bp_localcontent at intgovforum.org;
Subject: Re: [Bp_localcontent] Regional Specificities

Hi Michele,
Certainly not a dumb question and mea culpa for using terms so loosely in
the UN context. There is no hard and fast definition of region here.
Sincerely,
Susan
On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 8:41 PM, Michele Neylon - Blacknight <
michele at blacknight.com> wrote:
> Susan
>
> Is region defined?
> I'm in Ireland so obviously I know which country I'm in :-)
> But in relation to "region" would that mean Europe?
>
> Sorry if that's a dumb question
>
> Regards
>
> Michele
>
> ------------------------
> Mr. Michele Neylon
> Blacknight
> http://Blacknight.tel
>
> Via iPhone so excuse typos and brevity
>
> On 10 Jul 2014, at 21:46, "Susan Chalmers" <susan at susanchalmers.com>
> wrote:
>
> Greetings, everyone,
>
> Thank you to those who joined us on the call today. It was a productive
> and helpful discussion. As mentioned, we will follow up with a summary that
> outlines the three-part framing of the issue, (human capacity, technical
> infrastructure, legal frameworks), which will inform the general definition
> of what "local content" is.
>
> We are now onto our second part of the discussion, during which we
> solicit information on regional specificities. Below are a few thoughts to
> get us started. I invite everyone on this list to enrich these simple
> beginnings with facts, references, and brief explanations putting these
> into context. Please add to the list under one or more of the three areas -
> you are very welcome to ask and answer your own questions. This section of
> the document will describe the state of Internet industry development in
> the countries represented.
>
> Area 1 - Human Capacities
>

> - To what extent do people in your country/region have the digital

> skills needed to create content/identify and access local content?

> - Are web accessibility standards observed, promoted, missing in your

> country/region? Is local government information accessible on the web for
> the blind or print-disabled, for example?

> - To what degree do people in your country/region have access to, or

> what is the affordability of, ICT devices with applications for creating
> content?

> - ....

>
> Area 2 - Technical Infrastructure
>

> - How many IXPs are in the your country/region?
> - What is the broadband penetration rate?
> - What is the local hosting market like in your country/region? Do

> people have their local content hosted abroad? Where?

> - ....

>
> Area 3 - Legal Frameworks
>

> - What is the state of ISP competition and regulation in the
> country/region?
> - What inspires people in your country/region to create?
> - What are the legal restrictions on content in your country/region?
> - ....

>
> Many thanks everyone in advance for sharing your contributions, and we
> look forward to continuing this discussion. Please feel free to contact me
> off list with questions in English or French.
>
> Sincere regards,
> Susan
>
> --
> Susan Chalmers
> Consultant, Internet Policy
>
> +1 269 324 4101 <tel:%2B1%20269%20324%204101> 
> www.susanchalmers.com
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Bp_localcontent mailing list
> Bp_localcontent at intgovforum.org
>
> http://mail.intgovforum.org/mailman/listinfo/bp_localcontent_intgovforum.org
>
>
--
Susan Chalmers
Consultant, Internet Policy
+1 269 324 4101 <tel:%2B1%20269%20324%204101> 
www.susanchalmers.com
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-- 

Susan Chalmers

Consultant, Internet Policy

+1 269 324 4101

www.susanchalmers.com

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