Re: Invitation, Thoughts on local issues

["Daniel Stern" <dstern@uconnect.org>]

Fred,

Looking through some of your recent presentations in the ftp folder
ftp://ftpeng.cisco.com/fred/common/ with the idea in mind of selecting
slides for the creation of a shortlist of topics of interest to our UIXP
members, I have only so far created a shortlist of presentations - so much
relevant to local issues to choose from!  Perhaps some our members will
assist in narrowing it down to selected slides they would wish you to cover
during your presentation next Wednesday:

Research Directions: Making the Internet Work for Everyone - JGN_2002.pdf

Drivers for High End Networks -  NTHU_2002.pdf

Internet Organizations: A Study in Political Science -
Internet_Organizations.ppt

Global Internet: Developments and Challenges - Internet_Future.ppt

Since many of your slides would seem to support arguments presented by
TESPOK's  http://www.tespok.co.ke/ Richard Bell in an article published in
Russell Southwood's Balancing Act Africa newsletter, perhaps you would like
to base part of your presentation upon issues Richard argues in that
article.   Here's an excerpt:

"Bandwidth costs in Africa in the 1990's were characterized by incumbent
Telco's and Internet operators extracting maximum return out of their
positions in monopoly or partially liberalized markets. During the last few
years connectivity costs have reduced substantially due to increased
competition resulting from the ongoing tide of liberalization. Today a
benchmarking study of liberalized markets in Africa would show that end user
prices are broadly speaking similar. There are regional variations and there
are some variations resulting from the degree to which the relevant market
has been liberalized, however none of these countries differ from each other
in orders of magnitude. In all cases the service providers will cite their
upstream bandwidth costs as their single biggest cost of doing business, and
in all cases the average end user prices would be considered high if
benchmarked against end user prices in G8 countries (particularly USA and
Europe). So what is the root cause of this differential?"
http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/current1.html

And further to Hope Mugagga's request that you 'brief members about ISOC
...and organise and participate in ISOC activities locally', in another
recent Balancing Act newsletter it was suggested that
"Because of the inability or unwillingness of the governments to protect the
people, it has become imperative that the people must protect themselves. If
ever there was a sector of the African economy that required the
establishment of non-governmental organisations committed to protecting the
interest of the end-users, it is the telecommunications industry. The sector
is too crucial to the socio-economic advancement of the people, and too
addictive once subscribed to, to leave in the hands of governments and
private enterprise."
http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act_127.html

Putting aside the strident tone of the article I would suggest that you
might the encourage the formation of an ISOC Special Interest Group (SIG) on
Policy in Uganda, composed of stakeholders, including ISP managers and
techies as well as UCC (regulatory authority) members as well as others
interested in providing government with advice on policy issues.

Apropos of which another idea might be to take the open letter to FCC Chair
Mike Powell by David Isenberg et all (excerpt below) and adapt it to address
issues in Uganda.

"Washington, DC, October 21, 2002 - An influential group of
Internet analysts and business executives today urged the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to let failing telecom
companies fail, and "fail fast."

The 41 signatories, led by independent telecommunications analyst
David S. Isenberg, said in a letter to FCC Chairman Michael Powell
that Internet-based technologies are subsuming the value embodied
in the traditional telecommunications networks. According to
the group, "This is causing the immediate obsolescence of the
vertically integrated, circuit-based telephony industry of 126
years vintage. [Telephone company] bonds used to purchase now-
obsolete infrastructure assets have become (or are inexorably
becoming) bad debt."

The group urges the FCC to resist telephone company pressure
tactics to prop up businesses that technological progress has
made obsolete, in order that advances in newer, better forms
of communication not be stifled.  Calling the current telecom
troubles "not a disaster, but a natural event," the letter
says a "revolution in productivity and human benefit as big as
the agricultural and industrial revolution" could result.

"Too many business analysts are talking about bubbles and
over-leveraged balance sheets as the root cause of current
telecom troubles," said Isenberg.

Clarify whether this is in the letter or is a separate quote.
E.g., said Isenberg, commenting on the letter, "This confuses
the symptoms with the disease.  These things are just symptoms
of the fact that Internet technology has made phone companies
obsolete. If the government tries to treat the symptoms, the
American economy will actually stay sick longer than if the
natural process is allowed to run its course."

The proper course, according to Isenberg, is to write off all
circuit-based telephone assets to reflect their obsolete
value, and re-capitalize the industry with as little
government intervention as possible.  "People will continue to
use the existing telephone network for years to come, just as
people still rode in horse-drawn carriages for years after the
automobile was invented.  But the government never subsidized
buggy whip makers, and it should not subsidize telcos now."

Included in the letter are four recommendations to the FCC:
  + Resist at all costs the telephone industry's calls for
    bailouts.  The policy should be one of "fast failure."
  + Acknowledge that non-Internet communications equipment,
    while not yet extinct, is economically obsolete and
    forbear from actions that would artificially prolong
    its use.
  + Discourage attempts by incumbent telephone companies
    to thwart municipal, publicly-owned and other
    communications initiatives that don't fit the
    telephone company business model.
  + Accelerate FCC exploration of innovative spectrum use
    and aggressively expand unlicensed spectrum allocation.

Isenberg said that this point of view has evolved over the
last several years among the signers, and has been reinforced
by market activity. "The results of the new Internet
technology on the old are there for all to see in the industry
stock prices. We just want people to think clearly about how
to move forward for the greatest public benefit."

(From 'Let 'em fast, Mr Chairman' SMART Letter #78  Soon available on
http://www.isen.com/archives/ )

A good backgrounder can be found in The Internet in an African LDC: Uganda
Case Study
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/cs/uganda/material/uganda.zip

Best regards, Daniel Stern


----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Baker" <fred@cisco.com>
To: "Hope Mugagga" <hopemugagga@yahoo.com>
Cc: <tweigler@isoc.org>; <cmusisi@cfi.co.ug>; <ntegeb@one2net.co.ug>;
<dstern@uconnect.org>; <erwalsh@cisco.com>; "Kim Gibbons"
<kgibbons@cisco.com>; <hemrick@cisco.com>; <bod@uixp.co.ug>;
<techies@uixp.co.ug>
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 8:39 PM
Subject: Re: Invitation


> At 09:02 AM 10/23/2002 -0700, Hope Mugagga wrote:
> >Many thanks for accepting our invitation. Please lets go for the
afternoon
> >of Wednesday, Oct 30th.
>
> sold. Did you have any thoughts on local issues?
>