For Once I Agree

Susan Crawford posts on public policy issues related to technology and telecommunications. From my view a mixed bag, much of which I disagree with. But Susan has posted over at Public Knowledge — The Broadband Revolution. This time I totally agree with her assessment. An excerpt –

The International Telecommunications Union recently issued a press release announcing with joy the release of “the first set of global standards for Internet Protocol TV (IPTV).” A key sentence:

A combination of voice, Internet and video services over a single broadband link and from a single provider is foreseen as the ultimate goal of the broadband revolution.

Those of you who lived through What Is Broadband Good For? with me last summer (first post here) know that the word “broadband” is a pet bugaboo of mine. It’s a word that answers a lot of policy questions in a particular way. It connotes (and denotes) a speeded, managed “service” that happens to use the Internet Protocol but is ultimately completely within the discretionary control of the network provider. …

If the goal of the ITU is for PTT like IPTV type provisioning then the whole technology is doomed. As we have discussed here before the ecology of the diverse content sources will not be shoehorned in the confines of IPTV settop box provider menus.

A sad day when it appears that policy wonks have folded to the monopolistic desires of Big Telco.

Susan’s full article here.