Internet Governance
regard to practical changes, some believe that changing the current Internet economic policies could open a Pandora’s box. Preventing possible monopolies in the Internet resources market It is possible that through take-overs, a few monopolies could dominate the entire Internet traffic market.47 This problem exists in both developed and developing countries. Some hope that the process of the liberalisation of telecommunication markets will solve the problem of monopolies (especially involving incumbent operators). However, liberalisation could lead to the replacement of a public monopoly by a private monopoly. Geoff Huston argues that establishing monopolies and losing the diverse market of Internet resources would inevitably affect the price and quality of Internet services.48 Who should cover the cost of links between developing and developed countries? When an end-user in Kenya sends e-mail to a correspondent in the USA, it is the Kenyan Internet service provider (ISP) who is bearing the cost of international connectivity from Kenya to the USA. Conversely, when an American end-user sends e-mail to Kenya, it is still the Kenyan ISP who is bearing the cost of International connectivity, and ultimately the Kenyan end-user who bears the brunt by paying higher subscriptions.49 Currently, developing countries cover the cost of links between developing and developed countries.50, 51 Compared to the traditional telephony system, where two countries share the price of each international call, the Internet model puts the entire burden on one side: that of developing countries. These countries must bear the costs for connecting to backbones located mainly in developed countries. As a result, small and poor countries subsidise the Internet in rich countries. The main argument in discussions about changes to the current system of Internet charges uses the analogy of the telephone financial settlement system, which shares the cost and income between communication endpoints. However, Geoff Huston argues that this analogy is not sustainable. In the telephony system, only one clearly identifiable commodity – a phone call establishing human conversation between two telephone sets – has a price.52 The Internet does not have an equivalent, single ‘commodity’, only packets, which take different routes through the network. This fundamental difference makes this analogy inappropriate. It is also the main reason why the telephone financial settlement model is difficult to apply to the Internet.
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