Warnings sounded over net neutrality in Asia
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(InfoWorld) - Asian regulators should think twice about followingÂ the U.S. lead on net neutrality, or risk undermining the economic incentive for Asian carriers to build and maintain faster networks, according to speakers at the CommunicAsia Summit in Singapore. Regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore show signs of enshrining a policy of net neutrality for future networks, and that's not necessarily a positive development, said Peter Waters, a partner at law firm Gilbert+Tobin. Net neutrality is a term for policies that prevent carriers from giving preference on their networks to traffic from their own sites, or charging Web sites extra for preferential treatment. "We need to back off a bit," Waters said. Regulators should wait until a problem arises before stepping in to set new policies, he said. Waters and others speaking at CommunicAsia argued that carriers must be able to collect revenue for the different types of content that crosses their networks. Asia Netcom, which operates a backhaul network in Asia, claimed the right to charge content providers for the data carried on its network, particularly when that data is valuable. For example, Google and others use Asia Netcom's network to transmit advertisements and other content that have significant value. "Why do I keep providing that [service] for free?" said Mark Simpson, the company's chief operating officer. Waters proposed a revenue-sharing model, where backhaul carriers receive a portion of the revenue from content providers for the data carried on their networks. Net neutrality is a contentious issue and is generallyÂ opposed by carriers, who argue it reduces the incentive to build new networks. However, in March, researchers at the University of Florida conducted a study using game theory analysis that found the opposite to be true. Allowing carriers to charge content providers for the data they carry provides less incentive for the carriers to expand and improve their networks, they found. "The incentive for the broadband service provider to expand under net neutrality is unambiguously higher than when the principle of net neutrality is abandoned," the researchers wrote in the conclusion of their report. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Foreign Internet service and applications providers would be required to base inside the country the servers they use for U.S. customers, under a proposal from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ and its U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) division are taking that message to the U.S. Congress and asking lawmakers for a broad rewrite of U.S. wiretapping rules. However, some members of Congress have ripped into the Chinese government for a similar law requiring Internet providers to locate their servers inside its borders. U.S. lawmakers have criticized the Chinese law because it allows the government to censor and monitor Internet traffic. The DOJ proposal, which would amend a 1994 telephone wiretapping law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), aims to allow the U.S. government easier access to servers so it, too, can monitor communications. The proposed law, not yet introduced in Congress, would likely set off an arms race in which other countries that want to conduct online surveillance require U.S. companies such as Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to locate servers inside their borders, said John Morris, director of the Internet Standards, Technology and Policy Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a civil liberties group. "There are countries around the world that would like nothing more than have the United States set the example, to say, 'you have to have a point of presence in my country,'" Morris said. The CDT included the DOJ proposal, pitched to lawmakers during the last couple of months,Â on its list of "dangerous" tech proposalsÂ in Congress. The CDT listÂ wasÂ released Thursday. The CDT is concerned that Congress could take up the proposal yet this year as lawmakers look for ways to attract voters before the November general election, CDT officials said. The DOJ press office did not return a phone call seeking comment on the proposal. In February, members of the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee scolded Google, Microsoft and Yahoo Inc. officials for allegedly cooperating with the Chinese government's censorship efforts. A day after that hearing, Representative Christopher Smith, a New Jersey Republican, introduced a bill that would bar U.S. Internet companies from locating Web servers inside "Internet-restricting" countries such as China and Vietnam, with penalties of up to five years in prison and a US$2 million fine for officers of companies that willfully violate the restrictions Smith's Global Online Freedom Act is awaiting action in the committee. Morris called the DOJ proposal "embarrassing" after lawmakers objected strongly to the Chinese law earlier this year. "The proposal has some horrendous provisions," he said. "The point-of-presence proposal itself would be devastating to the American economy." The DOJ proposal would force vendors of any Internet communications applications to redesign their products to allow wiretapping, Morris said. "The harm to innovation that would follow ... is hard to underestimate," he said.
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By Mohd Iskandar Ibrahim; Nisrin Othman; Hani Elisah Hasan  KELVIN, of Klang, is disappointed with the breakdown of Streamyx service to his house. "I checked my modem but there was nothing wrong with it," he says.
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Asia is set to overtake Europe's  early lead in adopting mobile television broadcasting as Europe  struggles to find available airwaves for broadcasts, industry  executives at an Asian trade fair said this week.
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In a digital arms race, China's Internet controls might be used for more than censorship.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has weighed in on network neutrality, and has come down on the side of caution in a debate that goes to the heart of Internet technology.
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Efforts by countries like China to restrict the exchange of information on the Internet are ultimately doomed to failure, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said in a speech.
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Net providers in the UK are resisting calls for them to police what customers do online.
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As Congress debates disputed Internet neutrality laws, supporters and defenders of the concept of equal pricing for all on the Web faced off yesterday at the VON (Voice Over the Net) trade show in Boston.
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Microsoft has warned Asian governments they could face patent lawsuits for using the Linux operating system instead of its Windows software.
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The land of Internet calling may not be free of regulation for much longer.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is taking the middle ground in the net neutrality debate that pits large telecommunications operators against Internet giants.
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China's biggest internet portal has warned that revenues and profits will suffer sharp sequential falls this quarter after its business was hit by surprise moves by the state broadcasting administration and the dominant state-owned mobile telecom operator.
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When it comes to net neutrality, telecom and Internet companies may be asking for it.
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Microsoft (Quote, Chart) CEO Steve Ballmer urged Asian government leaders not to take sides in the Linux versus Windows debate. &quot;We recommend to all governments that they not get emotionally involved in preferring
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Microsoft has warned Asian governments that they may face lawsuits for using the Linux operating system instead of Windows. Speaking to government officials in Singapore Thursday as part of a five-day visit
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Proposed law could prevent the government from offering broadband access.