Networks, markets and hierarchies: Governance and regulation of the UK Internet

Parliamentary Affairs

Volumn 59, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 314-330

  Collins, Richard ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33745635706     PISSN: 00312290     EISSN: 14602482     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/pa/gsl010     Document Type: Review

References (79)

1. Office for National Statistics (ONS), Social Trends, No. 35, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, available at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/ theme_social/Social_Trends35/Social_Trends_35.pdf.
2. Ofcom, Annual Report 2003-04, Ofcom, 2004, p. 33.
3. Office for National Statistics (ONS), 'An ageing and more diverse society', News Release, 22.3.2005, p. 2, available at http://www.statistics.gov. uk/pdfdir/sot0305.pdf.
4. G. Thompson, Between Hierarchies and Markets. The Logic and Limits of Network Forms of Organization, Oxford University Press, 2003.
5. M. Taylor, The Moment of Complexity, University of Chicago Press, 2001, p. 5.
6. M. Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 469.
7. Thompson, The Rise of the Network Society, op. cit., p. 30.
8. A. Barry, Political Machines. Governing a Technological Society, Athlone, 2001, p. 86.
9. Thompson, Political Machines. Governing a Technological Society, op. cit., p. 112.
10. M. Mueller, 'ICANN and Internet governance. Sorting through the debris of "self-regulation"', Info, 1, 1999, p. 498.
11. Taylor, Info, op. cit., p. 4;
12. see also, A.-L. Barabasi, Linked: The New Science of Networks, Perseus, 2002;
13. Castells, Linked: The New Science of Networks, loc. cit.;
14. M. Castells, The Internet Galaxy, Oxford University Press, 2001;
15. R. Keohane and Nye, 'Power and Interdependence in the Information Age', Foreign Affairs, 77, 1998, pp.81-95.
16. J.P.Barlow, Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, 1996, available at http://www.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html.
17. Thompson, Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, op. cit., p. 112.
18. See for example, S. Starr, 'Responsible Regulation', Spiked 23.7.2003, available at http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000006DE74.htm;
19. SACOT stated, inter alia, that 'Trade associations and other existing industry bodies are not suitable structures to exercise co-regulatory functions' in Promoting Effective Self-Regulation, Criteria for Transferring Functions to Co-Regulatory Bodies. Comments by the Scottish Advisory Committee on Telecommunications, SACOT, 2003, p. 2.
20. DTI/DCMS [Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Culture, Media and Sport], The Draft Communications Bill The Policy. Cm 5508-III, HMSO, 2002, p. 48.
21. Personal interview, 4 August 2003.
22. R. Hooper, 'Content Regulation in the Multiplatform Multichannel Digital Age', Ofcom, 2005, available at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/speeches/2005/08/ hk.
23. Internet Service Providers.
24. That is Internet Protocol (IP)-based networks where layers, e.g. access, transport, control, services, are independent and of multi-purpose (voice, data, access to services). Devoteam 2003 provides an excellent account of NGNs.
25. Application Programme Interface.
26. The direction of this change is clear - its pace may lag because of the strength of legacy networks, incumbent inertia, the generally superior current quality of service over circuit switched networks and so on.
27. There are four layers identified in the Internet protocol (IP) - applications, transport, Internet and network access and seven (physical, data link, network, transport, session, presentation, application) in the Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model (OSI). See Wikipedia at http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Layer_2. Another analysis, 'Measuring the Internet Economy', identifies four layers; infrastructure, application, intermediary, Internet commerce, available at http://crec.mccombs.utexas.edu/works/articles/ internet_economy.pdf.
28. Country codes, such as .de (Germany), .uk (United Kingdom), .za (South Africa) are known as ccTLDs (country code top level domains) and other top level domains, such as .com, .net, .info, .arpa are known as gTLDs.
29. http://www.nic.uk/AboutUs/Introduction/Mission.
30. Personal interview, 1 September 2003.
31. A DTI source (interviewed on 4 August 2003) stated that though it might be arguable that some parts of Nominet might be covered by the associated facilities provisions of the Act, 'It's clear that Internet names are not telephone numbers'. Moreover, Nominet (interviewed on 1 September 2003) contends that, even if the Communication Act 2003 provided Ofcom with powers to direct Nominet, because Nominet has intellectual property rights in the .uk address data base, no effective alternative to Nominet as a .uk registry could be established.
32. Personal interview, 1 September 2003.
33. Or a different ccTLD, for many national registries (including Nominet) allocate addresses to persons not-resident in the country in question-it is quite possible for a German company, or individual, resident in Germany to have a .uk address.
34. A .scotland domain could not, under ICANN's current operating practices, be established independently of Nominet for ICANN permits CcTLDs to be established only for states recognised by ISO. Customarily national domains are given the ISO country code as their country code (Australia changed from .oz to .au to conform to this doctrine). Curiously, the UK is an exception to this rule, for gb is the ISO code, however, ICANN uses .uk, the CcTLD that Nominet administers.
35. OFT [Office of Fair Trading] Nominet UK and Scotnom Limited at http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/39DA216D-B356-4893-802B-B00241A4B0F8/0/ april2003.pdf on 4.12.2003.
36. Tiscali UK launched in July 2001 following acquisition of Liberty Surf, World Online, LineOne and subsequently Tiny Online and Gateway ISP to form the fourth largest ISP in the UK.
37. Oftel, 'Wholesale unmetered narrowband Internet termination services - UK excluding Hull area market', 2003, available at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/ consult/condocs/narrowband_mkt_rvw/internet_term_uk_ex_hull.pdf;
38. Oftel 'Wholesale unmetered narrowband Internet termination services - Hull area market', 2003, http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/ narrowband_mkt_rvw/internet_termin_hull_area.pdf.
39. Significant Market Power - the ability of a firm or firms to act anti-competitively.
40. LINX (London Internet Exchange), Memorandum of Understanding. Version 7.5, LINX, 2003.
41. Devoteam, Regulatory Implications of the Introduction of Next Generation Networks and Other New Developments in Electronic Communications, Devoteam Siticom and Cullen International, 2003, p. 86, available at http://europa.eu. int/information_society/topics/telecoms/regulatory/studies/documents/ regulatory_implications_study.pdf.
42. Peering and transit can be distinguished in the Internet transport layer. Peering is the exchange of IP traffic between networks; transit is a pay for version of the same. In the utopian, early, moment of the Internet peering was the norm. Operators handed on traffic to each other on a 'knock for knock' basis. Latterly, peering has been supplanted by priced transit and, where peering still obtains, often transport providers will peer only with their equivalent peers. See, inter alia, Cable and Wireless' peering policy at httpi//www.cw.com/uk/ournetwork/peering/peering_europe.html.
43. Personal interview LINX representative, 15 July 2003.
44. Personal interview, 28 July 2003.
45. For persuasive testimony of the dynamic character of transport markets, on the difficulty of defining markets, and thus the difficulty of giving an account of the extent to which transport markets function well, see E. Giovanetti, 'Interconnection, Differentiation and Bottlenecks in the Internet', 2000, available at http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/dae/repec/cam/pdf/wp0011.pdf;
46. E. Giovanetti and C. Ristuccia 'Estimating Market Power in the Internet Backbone Using Band-X data', 2003, available at http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/dae/ repec/cam/pdf/cwpe0332.pdf.
47. The Office for Telecommunications, the sectoral regulator for telecoms until superseded by Ofcom on 29.12.2003.
48. FRIACO is an unmetered wholesale product that allows other network operators to offer their own unmetered Internet access products in competition with incumbents.
49. PPCs are the key wholesale components of leased lines, which telecoms operators buy from BT so they can offer their own services directly to end users. The prices set by Oftel for PPCs are typically 50% lower for connection and 20% lower for rental than BT's previous charges.
50. A family of BT broadband products.
51. See http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/bam/statement/statement.pdf.
52. See Ofcom, News Release, 23.6.2005, available at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/ media/news/2005/06/nr_20050623.
53. P. Graf, Report of the Independent Review of BBC Online, 2004, p. 6, available at http://www.culture.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/45F9953F-CE61-325-BEA6- 400DF9722494/0/BBCOnlinereview.pdf.
54. P. Graf, Report of the Independent Review of BBC Online, Ibid, p. 9.
55. P. Graf, Report of the Independent Review of BBC Online, Ibid, p. 11.
56. KPMG, Summary of Market Impact Assessment of BBC's Online Service, Final Report, 24 June 2003, available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/policies/pdf/ kpmg_exec_sum.pdf.
57. Graf, Summary of Market Impact Assessment of BBC's Online Service, op.cit., p. 58.
58. Graf, Summary of Market Impact Assessment of BBC's Online Service, Ibid., p. 83.
59. Hooper, Summary of Market Impact Assessment of BBC's Online Service, loc. cit.
60. W. Dutton, C. di Gennaro and A. Millwood-Hargrave, The Internet in Britain, The Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS), Oxford Internet Institute, 2005, p. 48.
61. Home Office and the Scottish Executive, Consultation on the Possession of Extreme Pornographic Material, Home Office, 2005, available at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-extreme-porn-300805/ cons-extreme-porn-300805iview=Binary.pdf.
62. Hooper, Consultation on the Possession of Extreme Pornographic Material, loc. cit.
63. Notably material which contain images of child abuse, anywhere in the world; contains adult material that potentially breaches the UK Obscene Publications Act; contains criminally racist material in the UK.
64. Notably by the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) see www.icra.org.
65. See http://www.iwf.org.uk/about/policies/remit2003.htm.
66. The IWF Annual Report for 2002, available at http://www.iwf.org.uk/about/ annual_report/annual-2002.htm, shows an annual income of c£0.5m which derives from 22 identified funders - a small number of the firms active in the sector - and the IWF has experienced financial difficulties in consequence of its narrow funding base.
67. See, inter alia, http://www.cyber-rights.org. Starr's (Starr 2003) remark is representative 'Internet users are quite capable of deciding for themselves what to read, watch, listen to and download, and whether they think it's any good to boot. The imposition of new responsibilities, in order to safeguard users, can only insult their intelligence and undermine their freedom'.
68. Personal interview with IPSA representative, 4 September 2003.
69. Y. Akdeniz, 'Case Analysis: Laurence Godfrey v. Demon Internet Limited', Journal of Civil Liberties, 4, 1999, pp. 260-67.
70. See discussion at http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Open_Systems_Interconnect.
71. See http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model.
72. Ofcom was established under the Communications Act 2003 and replaces five earlier regulators - the Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC), the Independent Television Commission (ITC), the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel), the Radio Authority and the Radiocommunications Agency.
73. See European Parliament and Council 2002, 2002a, 2002b, 2002c and CEC [Commission of the European Communities] 2002.
74. Strategy Unit, Electronic Networks. Challenges for the Next Decade, Number 10 Strategy Unit, 2002, available at http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache= rhAZZdVqVLKJ=www.strategy.gov.uk/downloads/su/en/00.htm+Electronic+Networks. +Challenges+for+the+Next+Decade&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=1.
75. Ofcom, Annual Report 2003-04, Ofcom, 2004.
76. Hooper, Annual Report 2003-04, loc. cit.
77. Castells, Annual Report 2003-04, loc. cit.
78. E. Wilson, 'What is Internet Governance and where does it come from? ', Journal of Public Policy, 25, 2005, pp. 29-50.
79. In summer 2003, the author interviewed 11 senior officials and managers from UK and international governance agencies (ICANN, OECD, DTI and Oftel), Internet firms and trade associations in access (ISPs), transport (telecom carriers), addressing and Internet exchange sectors. Subsequently other interviews have been conducted.