########## ########## ########## | BUILD THE NATIONAL PUBLIC NETWORK:| ########## ########## ########## | An Open Letter to the Internet| #### #### #### | | ######## ######## ######## | EFF TESTIFIES IN WASHINGTON:| ######## ######## ######## | Excerpts from the EFF proposal| #### #### #### | to the House Sub-committee on| ########## #### #### | Telecommunications and Finance| ########## #### #### | | =====================================================================| EFFector Online November 6, 1991 Volume 2, Number 1| =====================================================================| THE NATIONAL PUBLIC NETWORK BEGINS NOW, AND YOU CAN HELP BUILD IT: An Open Letter from The Electronic Frontier Foundation Dear Friends of EFF: Telecommunications in the United States is at a crucial turning point. With the Regional Bell Operating Companies (the RBOCS) now free to provide content as well as conveyance, the push for dominant shares of the market for information services will begin with a vengeance. How to shape and control this burgeoning market is a problem that has been thrown from the courts into the lap of Congress. But, for the past decade, Congress has been hearing only two voices in the debate over telecommunications policy. To widen this circle the EFF has joined the debate between the Regional Bell Operating Companies (the RBOCs) and their opponents over the future of telecommunications. We have done so to break the deadlock that has kept this nation from developing an affordable, open, and accessible information network; a system we call the National Public Network (the NPN). Creating this network is one the EFF's main missions. We would now like to urge the entire Internet community to join us in helping to implement a technology on which we can begin to build the National Public Network. Last week, in testimony before the House Sub-committee on Telecommunications and Finance of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the EFF proposed that Congress act to deploy a ubiquitous, affordable communications platform, based on the extant technology of the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), to every home, office, and school in the country. In outline, our proposal asks: 1) that the nation employ existing ISDN technology to give the ability to telecommunicate affordably, ubiquitously, and easily to all those with a copper-wired telephone connection; 2) that we use the existing technology and infrastructure of ISDN to begin building of the National Public Network now; 3) that we stop waiting for the nation to spend hundreds of billions of dollars and decades to rewire with fiber optics; 4) that we act now to reap the benefits of affordable connectivity for all; 5) that we use existing technology in order to gain experience in the human uses and benefits of networking; 6) that this technology be priced like local voice service. The Telecommunications Standoff The main reason that the U.S. has stalled in the development and and deployment of information technology is that the two-sided debate over policy is so polarized that compromise is exceedingly difficult to reach. One side is formed by the RBOCs. The other side is a coalition of print and electronic publishers, long-distance carriers and the cable television industry. This coalition fears that if the RBOCS are allowed to provide content as well as conveyance, the market will never become truly competitive. The RBOCs, as described by their opponents, have vast sources of capital. The RBOCs can control local exchanges and services critical to marketing and distributing information services. In sum, according to the opposition, the RBOCs are seen as regional monopolies in search of yet more arenas to monopolize. In their defense, the RBOCs assert that they no longer have monopoly control over local exchange facilities. They also assert that the benefits of the information age will only reach the mass consumer market when they are allowed to bring their special resources and expertise to the medium. They claim that their opponents fears are overstated; that they can be the message as well as the medium. Everyone now involved in the debate agrees on the need for legislative safeguards. If the RBOCs are to provide information services over their own common carrier networks, we need to take steps to ensure a level playing field for all. Proposed safeguards include a requirement that the RBOCs create subsidiaries to produce and market information services at arms' length from the network carriage divisions. Other safeguards include pricing rules which would ensure that affiliated information providers pay the same rates for information transmission services as are charged to unaffiliated providers. The EFF agrees that many of the proposed safeguards are necessary. But it also knows that the central issue is to create a network that is open, free, and accessible to all, not just one that works for an association of business interests. The EFF believes that what has been lost in this debate is a concrete focus on how best to meet the telecommunications needs of the American public. The EFF feels that this should be the primary goal of a national network. With our current draft proposal we also think that there is a way out of the current standoff through a blend of politics and intelligently applied existing ISDN technology. Over the last year and a half, the EFF has, with the support and hard work of many individuals and organizations, become a voice that is heard and respected in the legislative and policy arenas. With the continued help and support of the Internet, we can build on this work and make "the voice of the Internet" a significant force in shaping the communications infrastructure in this country. We believe that those with Internet experience should be part of the process that determined the shape, cost, and future of information technology in the coming decade. At the conclusion of our testimony in Washington last week, the Sub-committee expressed keen interest in our ISDN concept, and encouraged us to develop the proposal in detail. When we mentioned that much of the proposal originated with our friends and members, the committee asked for more detailed input from the networking community and computer industry. We are appending excerpts from the testimony to this letter. What You Can Do Based on this positive response from Congress, members of the EFF and the Internet now have the opportunity to break the deadlock that has hamstrung the development and widespread use of information technologies for years. In the coming months the EFF will be working, with the help of our members and concerned networking constituents, on a fully detailed proposal to bring this about. We are calling this effort "The Internet Brain Trust." We would like to ask you to join us in this effort, whose progress we will continue to describe in this publication. First, we urge you to join the EFF if you are not already a member. This implies a minimum of financial support as well as the willingness to stand up and be counted as an active supporter. While the financial consideration is important to us, we'd like to stress that it is *much more* important in political terms for us to have as many members as possible. We need to be able to show not only the efficacy of our proposals, but the extent of our constituency. Second, if you only wish to monitor the progress of this project over the coming months you may, from time to time, send an email request to npn-info@eff.org. All you have to do is include the line "Send documents braintrust" in either the subject line or the body of your letter and you will receive the latest documents via return email in a short time. Third, it is essential for us to have the benefit of the distributed mind and experience of the Internet in forging the details of the proposal we will ultimately submit to Congress. If you wish to be an active participant in contributing to the shaping of our detailed proposal, *especially* its technological aspects, please join our new, moderated mailing list ibt (Internet Brain Trust) mailing list by sending mail to ibt-request@eff.org. Sincerely, The Electronic Frontier Foundation -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- TESTIMONY OF MITCHELL KAPOR,PRESIDENT, ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION,BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND FINANCE OCTOBER 24, 1991 [EXCERPTS] The Infrastructure Challenge Mr Chairman, I view the lifting of the information services restrictions by Judge Green as a pivotal moment for our nation's communications future. If Congress is to address these issues effectively, it must first re-frame the current debate. While the entry of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies into the information services market poses serious dangers of anti-competitive behavior -- because of their bottleneck control over the local phone loop -- erecting appropriate safeguards must not be the overarching goal of communications policy. Neither should "lifting the restrictions" on information services or manufacturing be the goal of public policy as the RBOCs advocate. Public policy must be guided by an overarching social vision of what I call the National Public Network, a vibrant web of information links to serve as the main channels for commerce learning, education, politics, and entertainment in the future. This network will include the voice telephone service that we are already so familiar with, along with video images, sound, and hybrid forms of communication. To build the National Public Network will require more than safeguards, entry level tests or new telephone company investment in information services and fiber optics. It will require Congress to establish in legislation basic standards, requirements, regulatory mechanisms and incentives that will: -- establish an open platform for information services by speedy deployment of "Personal ISDN" nation-wide --ensure competition in local exchange services --promote First Amendment free expression by reaffirming the principles of common carriage --foster innovations that make networks and information services easy to use --protect personal privacy --preserve and enhance equitable access to communications media. Recommendation Create an open platform for innovation in information services by speedily deploying a nation-wide "Personal ISDN" which offers an affordable, end-to-end digital service platform capable of reaching into every home, business, and school in the U.S. In the evolution of the NPN, information entrepreneurship can best be promoted by building with open standards and by making the network attractive to as many information service providers and developers as possible. The most valuable contribution of the computer industry in the past generation is not a machine, but an idea--the principle of open architecture. Typically, a hardware company (an Apple or IBM, for instance) neither designs its own applications software nor requires licenses of its application vendors. Both practices were the norm in the mainframe era of computing. Instead, in the personal computer market, the hardware company creates a "platform"--a common set of specifications, published openly so that other, often smaller, independent firms can develop their own products (like the spreadsheet program) to work with it. In this way, the host company takes advantage of the smaller companies' ingenuity and creativity. In the early stages of development of an industry, low barriers to entry stimulate competition. It should be as easy to provide an information service as to order a business telephone. Large and small information providers will probably coexist as they do in book publishing, where the players range from multi-billion-dollar international conglomerates to firms whose head office is a kitchen table. Large and small publishers can coexist because everyone has access to production and distribution facilities--printing presses, typography, and the U.S. mails and delivery services--on a non-discriminatory basis. To achieve the information diversity currently available in print in the new electronic forum, we must guarantee widespread accessibility to a platform of basic services necessary for creating information services of all kinds. The platform of services offered must: (1) have a critical mass of features and capabilities; (2) be ubiquitous; (3) be affordable. Some suggest that the technology necessary to offer such a platform is far off and would require billions of dollars of investment in fiber optics. Actually, we have a platform that meets these criteria within our reach right now. Personal ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) could make voice, data, video, high-speed fax, video, and multimedia services available TODAY to telephone subscribers all around the country. ISDN as a key information services technology is well-known in the communications industry, but its potential as a universal platform is not properly appreciated, nor has it been properly positioned by the RBOCs as a service for everyone. The personal computer transformed the image of the computer from that of hulking mainframes imprisoned in glass-walled temples to friendly desktop machines capable of performing a wide variety of useful tasks. Just as the desktop personal computer represented the revolutionary platform for innovation of the 1980's, it is my belief that ubiquitous digital communications media, such as are enabled by ISDN, represent the hope of the 1990's. Personal ISDN can enable the citizen's access into the Information Age. The key attributes of a Personal ISDN are that, as a platform, it possess a critical mass of enabling features and capabilities for individual use; and, as a service, that it be positioned, priced, and marketed to be of interest to and within the reach of everyone. ISDN must be re-positioned as a basic service, available to consumers and small businesses. This service can be the test bed for a whole new generation of information services which could benefit the American public. A Critical Mass of Features and ISDN Many of the capabilities once thought to be possible only on an all-fiber network, such as interactive full-motion video can be achieved to a significant degree over Personal ISDN. This is due to continuing revolutions in microelectronics and software which enable compression of video signals by a factor of 100 without significant loss of quality. Given this, it is possible to use copper wire-based ISDN to carry video signals to their destination, at which point they are uncompressed through use of increasingly inexpensive processors, which are built-in to computers, televisions, and other consumer electronic equipment. If uncompressed, carriage of these video signals would require hundreds of billions of dollars of replacement of existing wiring in the local loop. Ultimately, there is a crucial role for an end-to-end fiber optic network. While we have not yet reached the limits of what can be done with video compression, in the end there will be some services, such as high-definition television, which will require the bandwidth of fiber optics. It would be a huge mistake, however, to commit the enormous funds required to build such a network and to wait until the next century for its deployment without accumulating a generation of experience based on lessons of the marketplace which can be achieved through a Personal ISDN-based platform. We have reached an effective limit to the usability of the current voice-grade telephone network for information services. Current bulletin boards and on-line services use existing voice-grade telephone lines for user access. These include 30,000 computer bulletin board systems (BBSes) with millions of users, in addition to the millions of Prodigy, Compuserve, and other commercial services. It's a healthy start, but expansion is hampered by inadequate infrastructure imposed by trying to overlay computer use on top of a network designed for voice telephony. Problems include lack of standardization; slow speeds; noisy, error-filled channels; and the difficulties of use and barriers created by these factors. As a result of these barriers, the vast benefits of new information technologies are denied to all but the computer-literate -- those who have the technical skills to navigate the complexities of today's information services. What is needed is to raise the floor by creating a new standard, minimum platform for information exchange. ISDN, repositioned as Personal ISDN, can provide a faster, cleaner digital platform for information users around the country. It will be easier to use, and allow information entrepreneurs to offer a vast array of services to a broader user base. Ubiquity and ISDN To create a market for information services, everyone must be able to reach the platform. We must build the new public network by making it easy for people to connect to it with a few simple decisions. Again, an analogy to the personal computer market is helpful. Minicomputers and mainframes were marketed to companies. Microcomputers (PC's) were marketed to individuals. We need to build a platform that can reach into individual households and small businesses in order to stimulate the development of information services that will meet the needs of those users. Personal ISDN-- which can be provided over the existing copper plant that comprises today's public switched network -- can reach into every home and every small business without laying a single mile of fiber optic cable. Telephone company data indicates that over the next three years majority of central office switches will be upgraded to requisite digital capability. Affordability and ISDN Platform services, even if they are ubiquitous, are useless unless they are also affordable to American consumers. Just as the voice telephone network would be of little value if only a small fraction of the country could afford to have a telephone in their home, a national information platform will only achieve its full potential when a large majority of Americans can buy access to it. We need an information platform that is priced as a basic service, on par with voice services, so that a choice to sign up is no more or less burdensome than subscribing to basic telephone service or cable television. All available information indicates that ISDN can be priced as a basic service. The cost of carrying a digital ISDN call from the customer to the local switch is just the same as an analog voice call in the digital switching regime that ISDN pre-supposes. There are some fixed investment costs still to be incurred to upgrade the nation's central office switches in order to handle ISDN traffic, but commitments to these investments are already largely made. ISDN as the Platform for the NPN Today For all of the reasons I have cited, ISDN would be an ideal platform for the creation of a variety of new information services. Yet it is not being made available to the American public. Today, even in Washington, DC -- a city that is one of the major information hubs of the country -- it is impossible to order standard ISDN service from the local phone company. Progress towards realizing the vision of the National Public Network will best be achieved through a series of incremental steps as our society learns how to use digital media. No one can guarantee when an application as useful as the spreadsheet will emerge for the NPN (as it did for personal computers), but open architecture based on a Personal ISDN is the best way for it to happen and let it spread when it does. The next incremental step should be the deployment of a medium-speed digital infrastructure based on ISDN which can be readily adapted for use by information entrepreneurs today. It will not require large capital investment, which could drive up basic rates. It can be leveraged by use of computer technology of desktops, laptops, and palmtops. In years to come every home and office may be attached to the National Public Network with a fiber optic link. But this is hundred of billions of dollars and years away. We have to crawl before we can run to the field of dreams. Summation and First Principles Much of the current debate about the future of the telephone network is defined by the opposition of two sets of large forces - the local Bell Operating Companies, on one side, and other carriers and publishers on the other. But often as not, the creation and emergence of new industries depends more on outsiders and new entrants who rely more on ingenuity than capital to develop the breakthrough concepts and systems which result in explosive growth. The personal computer industry was sparked by the contributions of industry outsiders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and myself to grow from nothing to $100 billion in just over a decade. A personal ISDN platform would give a new generation of information entrepreneurs a chance to show what they can do. To the extent we can open up the process from one dominated exclusively by well-fortified corporate interests to one in which entrepreneurs have a chance, we improve the chances of another entrepreneurial revolution. If we build the right platform and we lower the barriers to entry to invite in all who want to play, I am convinced the entrepreneurs will find it, and, with the sure, invisible hand of market feedback, will help realize the vision of the information age. In addition to the fundamental value of openness, the platform that we propose should also be governed by the following principles: Ensure Competition in Local Exchange Services To reduce the threat of bottleneck control over local exchange facilities by the Bell companies, Congress must act now to ensure competition in local exchange services. Competition will promote innovation in these services on which information providers rely, and help guarantee equal access to all local exchange facilities. Promote First Amendment Free Expression by Affirming the Principles of Common Carriage In a society which relies more and more on electronic communications media as its primary conduit for expression, full support for First Amendment values requires extension of the common carrier principle to these new media. Common carriage principles would require that public communications carriers offer their conduit services on a non-discriminatory basis, at a fair price, and interconnect with other communications carriers. Make the Network Simple to Use Today's public switched telephone network is easy to use and adaptable for use by people with special needs. Information services that become part of this network should reflect this same ease-of-use and accessibility. Protect Personal Privacy The infrastructure of the National Public Network should include mechanisms that support the privacy of personal information and personal communication. Preserve and Enhance Equitable Access to Communications Media The principle of equitable, universal access to basic services is an integral part of today's public switched telephone network. We must ensure that all Americans have access to the growing information services market now and in the future. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- NEW CORPORATE/ORGANIZATION MEMBERSHIP AVAILABLE AT EFF After a number of requests and much discussion, we have created a new membership category for EFF. This membership allows organizations to join. This membership fee is $100.00 annually. The sponsoring organization can, if it wishes designate up to five individuals as active members in the organization. Five copies of EFFECTOR and all other materials produced by or made available by the EFF will be sent to the organization or the designated members. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- MEMBERSHIP IN THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION In order to continue the work already begun and to expand our efforts and activities into other realms of the electronic frontier, we need the financial support of individuals and organizations. If you support our goals and our work, you can show that support by becoming a member now. Members receive our quarterly newsletter, EFFECTOR, our bi-weekly electronic newsletter, EFFector Online (if you have an electronic address that can be reached through the Net), and special releases and other notices on our activities. But because we believe that support should be freely given, you can receive these things even if you do not elect to become a member. Your membership/donation is fully tax deductible. Our memberships are $20.00 per year for students, $40.00 per year for regular members. You may, of course, donate more if you wish. Our privacy policy: The Electronic Frontier Foundation will never, under any circumstances, sell any part of its membership list. We will, from time to time, share this list with other non-profit organizations whose work we determine to be in line with our goals. But with us, member privacy is the default. This means that you must actively grant us permission to share your name with other groups. If you do not grant explicit permission, we assume that you do not wish your membership disclosed to any group for any reason. >>>---------------- EFF@eff.org MEMBERSHIP FORM ---------------<<< Mail to: The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc. 155 Second St. #21 Cambridge, MA 02141 Yes, I want to support the EFF and the initiative for a National Public Network, as well as become a member. I enclose:$__________ $20.00 (student or low income membership) $40.00 (regular membership) $100.00(Corporate or company membership. This allows any organization to become a member of EFF. It allows such an organization, if it wishes to designate up to five individuals within the organization as members.) [ ] I enclose an additional donation of $___________ Name:______________________________________________________ Organization:______________________________________________ Address: __________________________________________________ City or Town: _____________________________________________ State:_______ Zip:________ Phone:( )_____________(optional) FAX:( )____________________(optional) Email address: ______________________________ I enclose a check [ ]. Please charge my membership in the amount of $_____________ to my Mastercard [ ] Visa [ ] American Express [ ] Number:____________________________________________________ Expiration date: ____________ Signature: ________________________________________________ Date:______________________ I hereby grant permission to the EFF to share my name with other non-profit groups from time to time as it deems appropriate [ ]. Initials:___________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------ ************************************************************ The EFF is a non-profit, 501c3 organization. Donations to the EFF are tax-deductible. =====================================================================| | EFFector Online is published by | | The Electronic Frontier Foundation | | 155 Second Street, Cambridge MA 02141 | | Phone: (617) 864-0665 FAX: (617) 864-0866 | | Internet Address: eff@eff.org | | Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is encouraged | | To reproduce signed articles individually, | | please contact the authors for their express permission. | =====================================================================| "You've got to stand for something, Or you'll fall for anything." Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253