TPRC47: Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy

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Abstract

This is an empirical study of the differences in quality and price of telecommunication services in 38 countries. The countries are categorized based on their legal tradition (i.e. civil or common law) and spectrum licensing procedure (i.e. auction or comparative hearing). In theory, comparing indicators used by the World Bank, International Telecommunications Union, and other organizations to measure prices and assess the quality of a country’s telecommunication industry will indicate which policy approaches have improved the overall quality of the telecommunications industry. The report also discusses how “successful” regulators have introduced competition in the telecommunications industry and demonstrates what countries falling behind might achieve if they adjust their policies appropriately. Since there are several possible explanations for the observed differences, the study controls for factors that may explain for the observed differences aside from legal tradition, including population density, rural population, and GDP per capita and in the analysis of licensing procedure, the study controls aforementioned variables as well as corruption and the strength of legal rights. The report concludes that status as either a civil or common law country and a country’s choice of licensing procedure strongly influence national telecommunications industries as measured by subscribership, accessibility, costs, the market share of leading operators, and broadband speeds. In five of six the indicators, civil law countries outperformed their common law counterparts in terms of quality of service measures and consumer prices. In five of the six indicators, auction countries seemingly have created higher quality telecommunication industries. Neither legal tradition nor licensing procedure seem to have a measurable effect on the cost of broadband services.

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Abstract

This paper contends that by influencing the security issues presented by global corporate data investments through a combination of domestic policymaking, dominance in key market sectors, and leadership in international standards-making organizations, China is establishing new global standards for the data trade. In 2017, Apple Inc. was one of the first firms to build a new joint venture data center in China to comply with China’s Cybersecurity Law of the same year. This law requires all firms that maintain “critical information infrastructure” to store their data on a Chinese-owned server. Apple, like many firms operating in China, relies heavily on data centers to function in the Chinese market. However, for Apple, as for many other companies in areas ranging from engineering services to enterprise computing, the decision to open a data center with major ownership by a Chinese firm transforms the politics of power and access to data within the company and among its consumers. Indeed, shortly after Apple began migrating the data of Chinese users to its new Chinese servers, some US-based users reported the migration of their data to Chinese servers as well.

The effects of Chinese influence on data security standards in the United States have yet to be thoroughly explored in the communications scholarship. No one has done so in relation to data storage for firms that are not explicitly in the digital economy such as white goods providers and home monitoring systems,. Drawing on reviews of Chinese corporate filings and government documents, as well as U.S. corporate filings this paper concludes that China’s Cybersecurity Law and the related technology regulatory framework have fundamentally transformed the ownership and the circulation of the data within the US market. The findings of this paper suggest that the United States should change its approach, because its current laissez-faire policies ultimately protect neither consumers nor national competitiveness.

China’s influence on global data governance lies at the core of the future of global communications policy. Targeted, critical perspectives on the country’s specific policies and their effects on firms across a wide range of sectors will help regulators to plan for mid- and long-term strategic challenges not just in the technology industry, but across sectors. As more industrial sectors become data-driven, communications policy will take an increasingly central role in industrial regulation writ large. 

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Abstract

Nationalization of Internet governance, or, in other words, the assertion of sovereignty over “national segments” of the Internet is a real trend nowadays and it happens predominantly in authoritarian countries. To academically study the assertion of sovereignty and the extent of such an assertion, I use the theoretical framework of cyberspace alignment to national borders introduced by Mueller (2017). He argues that instead of technical fragmentation of the Internet, there are attempts to align the control of cyberspace with national borders while preserving the benefits of using the global network. He suggested three main methods to implement such an alignment: national securitization, territorialization of information flows, and efforts to structure control of critical Internet resources along national lines. This theoretical and methodological frame is useful to study Internet governance in Russia and explain what is happening with RUnet and how close it is now to become a truly “sovereign network.”

The first part of this study describes national securitization in detail: (1) emergence of cybersecurity as a national security issue in the Russian doctrinal documents; (2) centralization of threat intelligence in a form of GOSSOPKA program and creation of the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents; (3) reliance on nationally produced technologies; (4) establishment or reassertion of legal authority for network kill switch. Notably, the fourth component stands out because the Russian discourse differs from Mueller’s understanding of domestic Internet shutdowns. The Russian focus was (and still is) on an external kill switch for the RUnet by hostile states because it is conceived as a threat to Internet security and resilience in Russia. The study shows that each of the four components takes place in the Russian policy with varying levels of completeness and success.

The second part deals with external content filtering, data localization laws, and geo-blocking. Russia has a comprehensive mix of all components; however, it doesn’t look similar to the Chinese Golden Shield. On the contrary, there is a gradual process of territorializing data and information, elaboration of laws regulating the blocking of websites with unlawful content and filtering of search engine results, while pressing foreign companies to comply with national law.

The third part devoted to the alignment of critical Internet resources to national borders is the most interesting because of its implications for Internet fragmentation. The case of RUnet offers an opportunity to track the development of legislation that deals with critical Internet infrastructure and attempts to create a system that allows RUnet to work independently from the Internet in case of emergency or external shutdown.

In summary, the case study provides the evidence for the Mueller’s theory, but the most important aspect that threatens the Internet with fragmentation is unpacking now in a form of recent legislation about the new logic of routing policies and attempts to make RUnet independent from procedures that ICANN use to maintain the global network. If eventually there will be a technical solution to make it, Russia will create a dangerous precedent for Internet fragmentation. 

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Abstract

Recently, there have been growing cyber-safety concerns over telecom equipment made by the Chinese vendor Huawei. This has led many countries to ban Huawei from supplying equipment for building the next generation of mobile networks, 5G. Responses from mobile operators and the telecom community in general have been mixed. For instance, many European mobile operators have stated that these concerns are overblown and that such a ban would delay 5G rollout by two to three years in the best case. Moreover, some operators have directly questioned the ability of the other vendors to timely deliver a complete 5G network. However, these claims have mostly not been grounded in empirical data. This paper takes a multi-perspective approach to investigating this problem empirically. We start by categorizing responses from different countries to using Huawei equipment in 5G. We then analyze the importance and readiness of Huawei for supplying 5G equipment. This analysis is based on contributions to standards and patents. We also present a conceptual risk analysis framework to qualitatively evaluate the ability of a single vendor to cause considerable damage to critical communication infrastructures. This model aims at exploring a set of relevant axis. More specifically, we look at potential for harm in different political climates that is peace, crisis and war. Another axis is whether banning a particular vendor from supplying equipment for the upcoming mobile networks generation is useful without having a backward compatible ban. A third axis is the ability of a vendor to cause harm as a function of the type of supplied equipment, for example radio towers vs network management systems. Combining the analysis of readiness for supplying 5G and potential for causing harm allows us to roughly estimate the likely impact that a complete ban would have on 5G rollout in different parts of the world. We find that such a ban can possibly delay 5G by two years or more for operators with high dependence on Huawei. Consequently, we explore potential approaches that would both reduce vendor-related risk and do not significantly delay the rollout of 5G. These include heterogeneous multi-vendor deployments, equipment verification and testing, international collaboration as well as signing non-aggression treaties. Unfortunately, there is no technological solution that fully remedy this problem. Combining technical solutions with efforts to build trust between countries, enforce existing alignments or create new ones seems a promising way forward.

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Abstract

This study examined whether the presence of a Free Trade Agreement between the United States and a foreign country significantly affected the outcomes of Internet domain name dispute arbitration cases, conducted within the framework of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy. Data were collected for approximately 2800 arbitration cases filed during the 2001-2019 period from ten countries, five with U.S. FTAs and five without. Therefore, this study sought to examine whether FTAs impact domain name arbitration cases. Logistic regression, with controls for additional variables, found that complainants are less likely to win in FTA countries. Separate analysis of high- and low-income countries found that the complainants’ win percentage is significantly reduced in the high-income countries while there was no impact in in low-income countries.

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the impact of the widespread penetration and use of intelligent mobile devices, particularly smartphones, married to broadband mobile networks, in China and India.China and India are the largest and second largest mobile markets in the world, with some 1.3 billion and 1.2 billion mobile subscriptions respectively. These two countries have leapfrogged directly into ubiquitous mobile communications networks, although an urban-rural gap remains in the deployment and use of broadband mobile networks. As mobile Internet use, combined with electronic transactions and payments, becomes the new norm, policymakers will need to formulate new policies to address challenges related to the large-scale migration of mobile users to broadband networks and the use of Internet-based transactional services. The authors discuss and compare strategies being used in China and India, and how these are affected by their different economic and digital ecosystems. We analyze what has worked, what did not, the problems encountered and whether there are lessons to be learned that are of general applicability, as well as for these two particular countries.

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Although the mobile telecommunications market in Africa has witnessed unprecedented growth since liberalisation, coverage gaps persist. The effort of governments across Africa to address uneven mobile coverage has given rise to universal access and service (UAS) of mobile telecommunications but due to numerous challenges, coverage gaps persist. An emerging trend within this context is zero-rating and other initiatives by over-the-top (OTT) players, which this paper examines from a UAS perspective using a multi-case study with an analytical framework developed from five principles of UAS.
The paper finds that some zero-rated services and other OTTs initiatives contribute to UAS, albeit with some drawbacks and limited contribution to physical infrastructure. While this has prompted various concerns, including the need to regulate OTTs, this paper recommends that an eclectic dialogue and debate - a wider discussion that critically draws on the inputs of a diverse group of multi-stakeholders in the industry - is critical to achieving a pragmatic regulatory framework as coverage gaps, especially for the Internet in Africa, need wide-ranging innovative solutions and resources including those of OTTs.

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This paper examines consumer preferences for voice calling using two methods via a mobile phone—over-the-top (OTT) communications services employing the Internet, and traditional mobile telephony using a cellular network. Due to its two-sided business model, OTT communications essentially offer services to users at no cost, enabling them to successfully compete with traditional telecommunications services. However, there are tradeoffs in using OTT services; for example, service quality is unsatisfactory compared to mobile telephony, and using OTT requires an Internet connection, potentially leading to additional costs. The objective of this paper is to understand consumer behavior in choosing between the two services in different situations of use—formal and casual occasional—and how they prioritize these attributes; service quality, price and Internet connection requirement. A discrete choice experiment was conducted in Thailand in 2019 using a web-based survey and face-to-face interviews. Four-hundred and forty-four responses were received, with respondents valuing service quality the most for both occasions, followed by price and then Internet connection. However, in the situation of formal usage, consumers valued service quality to a significantly higher degree than prices compared to casual use situations. Additionally, willingness to pay for better quality under the formal occasion was found to be 4 Baht per minute, whereas it was 1.4 Baht under the casual situation. Hence, users tend to use different services depending on the occasion of use—consumers tend to call using mobile telephony, the service quality of which is considered to be better, in formal occasions, whereas they use OTT for calls in casual situations. Users are also willing to pay for better quality service in so-called freemium employed services. Implications of these results and policy recommendations are also discussed in this paper.