Tuesday, April 23, 2013

ITU Compiles IP Traffic Stats; "Net Neutrality Debate will Continue"


The ITU's "Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2013" regulatory report (here) finds that "Triggered by the growing number of Internet connections over mobile and fixed platforms, monthly Internet protocol (IP) traffic has skyrocketed from the modest 1 petabyte two decades ago, to an estimated 44’000 petabytes in 2012".

The ITU compiled a chart from multiple sources:


On Net Neutrality, ITU says "one of the key questions in the net neutrality debate concerns what types of traffic management are acceptable (and what triggers their use) and which are not. Ofcom, for example, has placed management practices on a spectrum [see chart below], which shows the progression from traffic management that does not raise concerns (and will generally improve efficiency), to those measures considered more problematic"


"In many ways, the net neutrality debate will continue to be shaped by the changing dynamics of the ICT market. Fixed line and mobile operators facing increasing capital investment costs will continue to seek more equitable business and revenue sharing models. In turn, service providers are responding by taking measures to protect their own interests, such as reducing reliance on public networks by using Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) or by building or acquiring their own networks". 

"Going forward, both regulatory and business models will need to adjust to ensure that investment in advanced networks and services is encouraged. There is ongoing debate on the appropriate regulatory model for access, with proponents of net neutrality regulation calling for greater investment in and upgrades to both access and backhaul networks. Likewise, new business models are being suggested to deal with the investment needed to serve new bandwidth-hungry content and applications. These include charging service providers more for prioritization (faster or higher quality service for latency-sensitive services) and providing guaranteed network capacity and quality of service for end users". 

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