The battle for the Internet intensifies
I ain't whistlin’ dixie here, folks. The traditional telecom providers really, really, really want to change the way the internet works, switching from a model where you pay them (your high-speed Internet access provider, e.g. cable co., phone co.) for plain Internet access, and separately pay different websites their various offerings, to one where the telcos provide controlled access to everything on the web, where they decide (through various controls and user interfaces) what websites you can see, what services you can access / obtain on the web, and make sure your telcom provider (e.g. Verizon) is in the middle of the financial transaction (e.g. gets some of the money) when you pay for the service you want.
Technorati Tags: Internet, Net Neutrality
Here's a good article on the latest salvo.
I'm Managing Director of the SIP Forum. SIP is the underlying technology being used by A-IMS. The SIP Forum's mission is to promote the adoption and interoperability of SIP. IMS needs, and is built on a SIP foundation, but SIP doesn't need IMS. In fact, I for one, along with many other of the people who helped bring SIP into the successful position it has, did not intend for SIP to be used to create IMS-style Internet toll booths. SIP can be made to be very useful without the access controls SIP is being used to build.
I am concerned that the SIP Forum is going to need to take a stand on whether it supports this form of IMS, or not. We have issues: Our bills are paid by our Full Members, who are equipment vendors that want to sell equipment to Verizon. Our Participant Members are individuals who probably want a flat, open internet with no toll booths. But they don't pay our bills.
Decision day is coming for the SIP Forum: What do we stand for?
The other problem: Consumers don't have a lobby that is as effective for them as the Telcos have for themselves. So consumers can't count on regulators to protect the status quo. And as long as you only have one or two high-speed network providers as your supplier of access to the Internet, if they both do the same thing (which they're hankering to do), market forces won't protect the status quo.
I am pessimistic about the future at the moment.