[discuss] African take on Net Neutrality

Thu May 15 16:12:50 UTC 2014

Looks like everyone has different meaning for Net Neutrality. Let me add my own. Net Neutrality is when our colleagues in the developed countries block packets from African Countries destined to multimedia content hosted in the North.  In africa we are used to accessing websites hosted in North and finding a message -"this content is NOT available to your region".

Ofcourse various reasons exists but one is commercial.  Why have african "eyes" watching your free online video when they rarely buy the advertised products? "African" packets therefor add more load to the network without much returns. So just drop the packet :-)

walu.
--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 5/15/14, Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [discuss] African take on Net Neutrality
 To: "Adam Peake" <ajp at glocom.ac.jp>
 Cc: "1Net List" <discuss at 1net.org>
 Date: Thursday, May 15, 2014, 3:53 PM

 @Milton
 In Kenya we have had cases of
 providers talking of 'Unlimited Internet' only to
 cap bandwidth after a certain threshold. Where would this
 fall under? 
 PS -
 They stopped this misleading practice of advertising when
 consumers protested.

 Ali
 Hussein
 +254 770
 906375 / 0713 601113
 Twitter: @AliHKassimSkype: abu-jomoLinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassimBlog: www.alyhussein.com

 "I fear the day
 technology will surpass human interaction. The world will
 have a generation of idiots".  ~ Albert
 Einstein
 Sent from my iPad
 On May 15,
 2014, at 2:12 PM, Adam Peake <ajp at glocom.ac.jp>
 wrote:

 On May
 15, 2014, at 5:49 PM, Milton L Mueller wrote:

 Net neutrality is about nondiscriminatory
 access to content, applications and services. A bandwidth
 cap does not discriminate among content, applications and
 services. It is quintessentially neutral.

 Unless the provider's own services do
 not count against the cap and competitors do -- noting that
 it's a complicated and thorny issue.  But I
 wouldn't say "quintessentially".

 Adam

 It provides the
 end user with an incentive to conserve bandwidth, but it
 does not tell them whether to conserve by refraining from
 BitTorrent downloads or Netflix watching or email or
 whatever. You may think it is a bad idea on other grounds,
 or you may think it is a good idea. But there is no way that
 bandwidth caps are a NN issue. 

 --MM

 -----Original Message-----
 From: Carlos Raúl G. [mailto:crg at isoc-cr.org]

 Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 10:29
 AM
 To: Carlos A. Afonso
 Cc:
 Milton L Mueller; Chip Sharp (chsharp); 1Net List
 Subject: Re: [discuss] African take on Net
 Neutrality

 Here
 we have it!

 Sorry Carlos A. I had not seen your
 response to Milton. 

 Fully agree with your "transmission
 capacity" definition. 

 On
 top, electric grids also make a difference between
 transmission and distribution because is the fine
 differences in bottlenecks at each level.

 Best
 regards

 Carlos Raúl Gutiérrez
 +506
 8335 2487
 Enviado desde mi iPhone

 El 14/05/2014, a
 las 07:40, "Carlos A. Afonso" <ca at cafonso.ca>
 escribió:

 I would rephrase,
 Milton:

 "Any
 definition of net neutrality which makes it impossible to
 charge 
 users who contract
 more data transmission capacity higher fees than 
 people who
 contract less data transmission capacity is a reduction to

 the absurd of the
 whole idea. It's like saying a 3Gbps fiber link

 should be leased
 for the same monthly rate as a T1."

 I would drop the
 comparison with kWh, since it is a measure of energy

 flow, not of
 capacity (or available power, if you will).

 Contracts with
 data caps (equivalent to contracts with a cap on 
 accumulated energy
 usage, to use your comparison, in which the 
 electric company
 charges you more per additional kWh if you go beyond

 a
 monthly
 cap) exist for any
 capacity and we should strive to abolish data
 caps.

 []
 fraterno

 --c.a.

 On 05/14/2014 10:12 AM, Milton L Mueller
 wrote:
 Any definition of net neutrality which
 makes it impossible to charge users who use more data higher
 fees than people who use less data is a reduction to the
 absurd of the whole idea. It's like saying a 3Gb fiber
 link should be leased for the same monthly rate as a T1, or
 that charging electrical power by the kwh is
 unfair.

 -----Original Message-----
 From: discuss-bounces at 1net.org
 [mailto:discuss-bounces at 1net.org]
 On 
 Behalf Of Jay Daley
 Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 9:01
 PM
 To: Chip Sharp (chsharp)
 Cc: 1Net List
 Subject: Re: [discuss] African take on Net
 Neutrality

 Hi Chris

 On 14/05/2014, at
 12:52 pm, Chip Sharp (chsharp) <chsharp at cisco.com>
 wrote:

 Now is being
 proposed the idea that Net Neutrality includes business
 relationships that don't require direct manipulation of
 data flow in the network.  Zero rating is one example of
 this, but not the only one.  

 Is this is really
 a Net Neutrality issue or is it an example of an innovative
 business offering?

 In countries where data caps are common
 this is often seen as a net neutrality issue.  

 At a technical level the traffic is
 actually treated differently if the data cap is exceeded,
 when it will not be subject to the same sanctions applied to
 non-zero-rated traffic, which is commonly to rate limit or
 to block entirely.

 regards
 Jay

 My view is that we
 still need flexibility to allow for innovation in business
 practices of ISPs *and* edge providers.

 Chip

 On May 13, 2014, at 6:48 AM, Anriette
 Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org>
 wrote:

 This is an interesting read on network
 neutrality from an African internet perspective.  I would
 summarise it as saying the principle is critical. How
 regulators apply it has to be sensitive to local contexts.
 The writer is Steve Song.

 http://manypossibilities.net/2014/05/net-neutrality-in-africa/

 Anriette

 --
 ------------------------------------------------------
 anriette esterhuysen
 anriette at apc.org

 executive director, association for
 progressive communications

 www.apc.org

 po box 29755, melville 2109
 south africa
 tel/fax +27 11 726 1692

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