Access power peering

In this report for the CCIA, Rob Kenny examined the trend towards paid peering, scrutinised the logic for such charges and discussed the risk of abuse by last mile providers.

Are traffic charges needed to avert a coming capex catastrophe?

The net neutrality debate is now gathering steam in Europe, both at the Commission level and in member states. Against this background, four European telcos commissioned a report from AT Kearney, to support their opposition to net neutrality regulation. This report, A Viable Future Model for the Internet, claims that carriers are facing ballooning capex requirements to fund the growth of internet traffic and that the best way to address this structural problem is via traffic charges to online service providers.

In response Robert Kenny has written a paper, Are traffic charges need to avert a coming capex catastrophe?, that takes a critical look at the AT Kearney report, considering it from technical, economic and regulatory perspectives.

It received several positive reviews, and has been cited by BEREC (the umbrella body of European regulators), ARCEP (the French regulator) and the Norwegian Posts & Telecoms Authority. 

You can download the report here.

Consumer lock-in for fixed broadband

In this report for the CCIA, Rob Kenny and Aileen Dennis considered the barriers to switching in fixed broadband. Such barriers are important since many regulators expect consumers to 'police' ISP behaviours, such as traffic management policies and net neutrality violations, by switching to another provider if those policies do them harm. However, if switching barriers are high, consumers may not switch even in the face of such harm.

The report considers:

• Which types of switching barriers are present in broadband
• Whether ISP practices and statements suggest they believe switching barriers are high
• Levels of switching between providers
• The likelihood of switching in response to a decline in quality

The report also uses new consumer research to quantify broadband switching barriers, finding that for consumers in France, Germany and Italy they are equivalent to a cost of €183.