Brand X decision could mean widespread VoIP blocking

Tue Jun 28 20:55:21 UTC 2005

On Tue, Jun 28, 2005 at 08:35:31PM +0000, Fergie (Paul Ferguson) wrote:
> > -- "W. Mark Herrick, Jr." <mark.herrick at adelphia.com> wrote:
> > >Jeff Pulver makes a good point in a Forbes article
> > >when he says "I believe it's a matter of when, not
> > >if" providers start blocking VoIP traffic from
> > >competitors across their own infrastructure, especially
> > >on the heels of the Brand X SCOTUS ruling.
> > >
> > >"If I'm a service provider offering my own voice
> > >over broadband offering, and I've got the ability
> > >to block my competition, why not?"
> > 
> > Harold Willison, my peer and Director of HSI Transport, Design, and 
> > Engineering at Adelphia, explains exactly why that would not be a fantastic 
> > idea, in the following article:
> > 
> > http://www.ct-magazine.com/archives/ct/0605/0605_internetprotocol.htm
> 
> I tend to agree with Mr. Willison. ;-)

Smartalec.  :-)

Willison correctly takes both sides of the issue, which, as usual, is
an elephant: how you see it depends on where you stand.  I thought, as
you did, Ferg, that he did a good job illuminating what the sides are,
and how to best interact with all of them:  Don't block unless you have
to to be secure; work with the providers to nudge their protocols into
the most easily securable form.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
Designer                +-Internetworking------+----------+           RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates   |  Best Practices Wiki |          |            '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA    http://bestpractices.wikicities.com    +1 727 647 1274

      If you can read this... thank a system administrator.  Or two.  --me