Article Of Interest: ISPs

Something rotten in Denmark?

Vint Cerf (is that a movie name or what?) has some wise words to impart about ISPs.

"Cerf, a long-time advocate of keeping the internet free from control by service providers and a current senior vice-president for search giant Google Inc., told the Silicon Valley Watcher blog that the companies are being childish by threatening to withhold upgrading networks unless they get breaks from regulators.

"Basically, it's like little kids in a tantrum: 'I'm not going to build this system unless you give me three scoops of ice cream and a pony,'" he said in a video posted on the blog on Tuesday. "My reaction to this is quite negative. It's harmful to the national interest to behave in this way because it is serious infrastructure — it's very much like the road ways."

Some comments from the site.

"If it wasn't obvious, Google clearly has some of the most intelligent minds in this domain. Why aren't these people given the authority for defining government policy?

The USA and Canada are always such laggards in progressive policy, from the environment to this, letting corporate interests define direction. It is OUR country...that is, the human citizen's...not the corporate citizen!"

"I live and work two hours north of Toronto two kilometers from Hwy 11 (where the fibre is) and I cannot get highspeed access to the internet unless I purchase a satellite system. This is because the telcos are only interested in the easy pickings and government doesn't have the guts and foresight to mandate countrywide coverage. You think it's hard for you folks who are paying $40/month for 4 Mbps, but it's harder if you can only get more than 32 Kbps by paying $100/month plus a $1000 setup, and the internet cuts out when it snows or rains.
Yes there's something rotten. Canada is actually a lowspeed country pretending to be highspeed. We were never convinced that we should all have highspeed. Only corporate profits matter."
Geez I want highspeed!"