We have been pulling together a panel for The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit that will be looking at Net Neutrality, so I have paid closer attention to emails crossing my screen on that subject.
I took special interest last week when I was pointed to a paper by University of Minnesota academic Andrew Odlyzko. For a paper that comes out of an academic institution, I am disappointed that it is insufficiently rooted in fact-based research. Certain assertions jump from the page that I have trouble accepting at face value. For instance,
Contrary to many claims of opponents of net neutrality, networks are not very expensive to build, and some simple calculations suggest that a net neutral communications infrastructure could be viable economically.
If this assertion is true, then why are there so few facilities based market participants?
Still, the paper provides an interesting canvassing of the issues that may help provide food for thought.
We have now confirmed that Professor Andrew Clement from the Faculty of Information Studies at University of Toronto will be joining our special session at The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit, looking at Net Neutrality.
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Canadian Telecom Summit, net neutrality