Wanderings of a Beautful Mind

A very good friend of mine, lazing in the peaceful, serene community of Lethem in Region 9, demanded that I make myself useful for a change and explain to the laypersons dem the concepts of net neutrality and how it relates to us in Guyana. After harbouring some unfriendly, malicious thoughts about him for a few minutes, I came around to the perspective that this was a good idea.

In fact, as we move towards telecommunication liberalization it would be good to start conversations about what it means in general and its impact on the advancement of the ICT sector. So, in the interest of some peace and quiet from meh partna in the south, let us go down the road of discussing the concept and effects of net neutrality and its relevance to abidese.

A simple definition of net neutrality, at least one that I like, is that it is the principle that internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favouring or blocking particular products or websites. I am using this definition for ease of reference but this is an issue that can and has already become complex.

As we all are quite aware, the Internet has become an indispensable tool for users around the globe and a fundamental facilitator of innovation and economic growth. Demand for Internet connections with greater bandwidth is unlikely to subside. Even now, some telco operators must use congestion-management and traffic-shaping techniques to keep their networks running smoothly. As a result, some commentators worry that network operators are technically able to use traffic-management practices to give preferred treatment to certain data streams.

Others are concerned that practices meant to increase revenues might block competing content or give unfair advantage to some content over others. They see these practices as problematic, especially when the practices intentionally discriminate against certain kinds of content delivery to the detriment of end users. This has led to larger public concerns that these kinds of practices jeopardize the open and transparent principles of the Internet. We gon come back to this hay in a bit.

So what does this have to do with awee good selves? Well you may notice whenever you communicate via voice, video, text wid yuh mother, son, daughter, aunty, gyurlfren, inside or outside lady you do it at very little if any real cost at all. You do this of course via Over the Top (OTT) apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Imo, Viber, Facetime and the rest of suspects. Of course, if you had to pay real money for dese kinds of facilities you woulda done gone back to writing letters and putting pictures in the envelope. (Remember the days writing ‘Do Not Bend’ on the envelope? No? Miss half yuh life)

On top of you not paying for this level of service, the makers of the OTTs also do not pay for sitting on top of the telecommunication networks and providing these extensive range of services. This of course does not sit well with the telco operators. You cannot imagine the suck teet and general grinding and gnashing of same at GT&T and Digicel. Is only the potential of nationwide cussing, busing and bad name (via social media of course) prevents dem from licking you down with charges or restrictions of these services.

Dem ent thrilled, not by a long shot. In their booklet, Net Neutrality – What is the best approach for the Caribbean, Digicel contends that.

“For the Caribbean a significant concern is that restrictive Net Neutrality rules will deter investment in broadband networks. This is a particular worry as investment is urgently needed to, quite literally, bring the Caribbean up to speed with other regions. The imposition of Net Neutrality rules that limit experimentation with new business models and network management practices will also reduce the incentive Barrier to investment of network operators to enhance functionality of their networks and thereby undermine the business case for investing in higher capacity broadband networks”

Furthermore:

In spite of what the purists say all data is not equal. The reality is that available capacity on any broadband network is a limited resource and this resource has a value.

In the meantime our demand for bandwidth growing in leap and bounds and we want it cheap as possible if not free. And we got some ole socialist ways eh, so as far we concern GT&T and Digicel does mek plenty money, GT&T done mek plenty money off awe so we de people deserve lil freeness. Now this bredren and sistren, is what my late grandfadda used to call a conundrum.

The more serious impact, and the one my friend down South is most interested in, is developmental. Notwithstanding all the jumping up and down about oil and gas, there is no question that technology is going to be a fundamental pillar if not the cornerstone of this nation’s future economic advancement. The internet of course will be a critical component of this effort.

At a policy level therefore the responsibility to successful enterprise and innovation is making sure that access to the internet is unfettered and unconditional. The Government of Guyana as an example has enshrined net neutrality in its new legislation. Legislative ‘carve outs’ are also included to support balance and flexibility regarding the operations of the telco operators. This we will also deal wid down de road.

So we have started dis hay discussion with about 950 words. Hope my good friend down South appreciate meh effort. We will get into further and deeper into this as we move collectively to develop the ICT Sector

Until eh.

Lance

De Writer is an ICT Strategist, Ministerial Adviser and convinced beyond a shadow of doubt dat he invent IT in Guyana