Should .gov promote/fund universal deployment of network infra?

Again through Wired Magazine, I came across some excellent articles from a blog written by the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA).

Let me give you a few quotes:

From “Top ten things lawyers should know about internet research #10:”

It is thus in interest of taxpayers for governments to promote and sometimes directly fund universal deployment of network infrastructure. More generally, government needs to prevent monopoly control over essential resources, mandate collection of traffic reports from ISPs to validate their claims, be a better role model for operational security, and coordinate the development of a roadmap for Internet security similar to that of the energy sector (DHS is working on this last one).

from the same post:

We can learn from our mistakes. The false assumption that competing members of a profit-maximizing ecosystem will cooperate toward architectural innovations not in their short-term interest is remarkably consistent across failed attempts to solve major problems of the Internet (e.g., ATM, multicast, routing security, IPv6, DNSSEC, QOS). …

Perhaps this is the best part:

Expecting the private sector to navigate these dimensions (security, scalability, sustainability, and stewardship) while subject to relentless pressure to minimize costs is a recipe for failure; even public-private partnerships are not free of these pressures.

Some analysis of how this can be applied in Brunei’s context after the jump:

Three key technologies that will impact internet in the future: FTTH, DNSSEC and IPv6. What are we doing to implement them? Why should we care?

FTTH

I think I can guess what the skeptics are probably thinking, and you do too. So … rather than go over what we both know, let me show you how it could be:

Fibers from the roads linking up into Optical Network Terminators, which then provide broadband to the inhabitants above

This photo is taken in Pau (France). The demographics are not too dis-similar to home. And then if you remember that the majority of the population lives in the built-up areas (Bandar Seri Begawan) you get a different comparison:

A little more digging, and we get some interesting info. The Pau network in the “Pau Broadbandcity” is actually a “municipal network” that is owned by the local government. Operators are allowed to provide services on top of this shared infrastructure, saving them from digging up the roads and being involved in costly civil works projects. Unfortunately the model is slightly “dated” in the selection of technology: they’ve gone for “active” fiber optics instead of the more modern “passive” optical networks.

DNSSEC & IPv6

One of the biggest internet security stories the history of the internet was the “Kaminsky DNS” hack. In the wake of that, I think it is no coincidence that now one of the biggest adopters of DNSSEC is the Federal Government of the US of A. IPv6 will also be one of the most important stories of 2009 – since estimates show that 2010/2011 we will be running out of Internet addresses if we don’t all migrate to IPv6.

The Bottom Line

So how would we actually go about doing this? Well, there are some interesting case studies we can look at –> The UK (BT) and New Zealand mandate “functional separation“.

This is an interesting model where the business that runs the infrastructure function is separate from the business that services the customers. In this kind of public-private partnership (PPP) ownership, control and the economic benefits of infrastructure can be neatly split between the different interests.

One scenario is thus: a semi-government body that concentrates on maintaining infrastructure and the last mile, while private companies compete and innovate in the services space only. And in this way, we may be able to effect the changes that are needed for long-term growth of our ICT industry : FTTH, DNSSEC and IPv6 among others. Because as CAIDA suggests, leaving these initiatives to the private sector alone would not be enough … and it also cautions that PPP’s are not the be-all and end-all of it.

It’s a tricky jumble to navigate.

[Note: Images above are licensed under the auspicies of Creative Commons licenses]

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