Re: [nc-transfer] Thoughts on the conference call - Part IV"Learning from the Telco's"

["Milton Mueller" <Mueller@syr.edu>]

>>> "Ross Wm. Rader" <ross@tucows.com> 11/07/01 12:30PM >>>
On the issue of "Learning from the Telcos"...

Ross:
I was not able to attend the teleconference and 
appreciate your statements summarizing major issues.

NCDNHC is participating in this TF as a "consumer" 
representative, focused specifically on smaller-scale 
consumers, as most of our members are in that category.

In my opinion (and my experience in the area goes
back to the early 1980s) the telecom industry analogy
is a very appropriate one. 

The most salient aspect of this analogy is that regulatory 
requirements for market segmentation (such as the 
local-long distance separation in telephone service, 
and the registry-registrar separation in DNS) are driven 
by political processes in which supplier interests have 
a much bigger voice than consumer interests. Although 
intensified competition can and often does produce 
consumer benefits, the structural separations are often 
engineered more to the specifications and the interests 
of competitive suppliers who want to make it as easy as
possible to take market share away from the incumbent 
but care little about the consequences for consumers. 

This should not in any way be misinterpreted as a
defense of dominant incumbent's "right" to their
customer base, but as a serious warning that
consumer interests and rights must be safeguarded
in name transfer policies and I will be
watching proposals and ideas emerging from this
Task Force carefully to ensure that they are.

Milton Mueller