Internet Policies in Other Countries?

Panthro asks: "I am writing a paper on how other countries are handling the internet, including censoring, broadband infrastructure deployment, ISP availability and quality, and general involvement levels of governments in the delivery of content to their constituents. Any personal experience involving the creation or enforcing of such policies would be very helpful." It's always wise to know what internet policies are being enforced out there, if only to know what's been decided on by others, which policies you might want to implement and which ones you might want to avoid implementing at any cost.

Re:.br policy

[Syberghost]

Oh my goodness, you HAVE to be a networking company, just to register in a hierarchy that is restricted to use by networking companies?

The nerve of some people. How can they get away with this?

Why, the next thing you know, .org.br will be restricted to organizations, and .edu.br will be restricted to schools!

Clearly, it's time for all Brazilians who think like you to rise up and overthrow their oppressors. Let me know how the three of you make out.

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France

[realkiwi]

Competition is arriving for France Telecom. That said during the coming 6 months it will be hard to say much about what it is like here - things will be in flux. Free ISP services are going bust. Paying ones are OK - I have a very expensive 256/1024 ADSL connection which gives me 120Kbyte downloads most of the time.

Interconnection between various ISP's is very poor with very long pings. Often faster to download from the US if the ftp server is on another french network than your ISP.

Historically the last country in the free world (whatever that is) to have legalized PGP...

Quite strict privacy laws which seem to defend the user.

The ex-monopoly controls the .fr DNS. Last time I checked the top level server for .fr was badly configured. Getting a .fr is such a hassle that even public service now prefer a .org domain!!!

Re:Canada

[Jason Pollock]

Furthermore, it is officially illegal to route any network traffic originating in Canada and destined for a location also in Canada, through any foreign country including the U.S.

This was done to prevent US carriers from simply putting POPs in Canada and routing traffic through the US, undercutting Canadian suppliers. This regulation is primarily for long distance (voice) carriers. It does appear to have achieved what it set out to do, which was force new entrants to the networking market to build their own networks, rather than route through their networks in the US. And yes, this rule _is_ enforced when it contravenes the _intent_ of the regulation. It isn't intended to beat up individuals.

No idea about the under-18 thing though. Where did that come from?

Jason Pollock

In Portugal

[sh4na]

Here in Portugal the communications infrastructure is owned by one company, Portugal Telecom, which is, of course, a monopoly, and a state-owned one at that (it's been privatized, but that didn't change much). Private companies have been piggy-backing on regional and national calls for about two years, but local calls are just now opening up (still piggy-backing, and are still ina transitional phase).
So, we pay ISP's for our connection, and we pay for the calls.

We now have free internet access, but it sucks. You really have to pay if you want to have something passable.
Cable is also pratically a monopoly, and is now just starting to offer net access, but there are few people who have it 'cause it's very expensive to set up (and they force you to use their cable modems, even if you have one. Oh, yes, and according to them, it only works on windows and you have to have a cable modem per computer... can you believe that?!?)

Censorship is non-existing (at least that). I really doubt anyone in our gov. can use a computer...
Most teens think Internet is IRC and ICQ... and netiquette is a weird word for mushrooms.
90% of the 5% of the population that knows anything about computers think that Windows is the greatest thing since codfish with garlick (favorite local dish... :-) )

Well, at least it's unexplored territory.

Chile

[Jajirov]

Down here the government hasnt censored any sites I know of, but like all things that can change, especially considering that a portion of the country with a pretty loud voice is strongly influenced by the church.
Theres a lot of broadband options, the two big cable companies are offering cable connections (27$ for 160 - 80$ for 960), theres a lot of people offering dsl (40$-as high as you need-want), but the most known and popular are the telephone companies, they are not monopolies and they compete on pretty much every terrain, local, international, internet access, etc.. And everyone and their neighbour is offering dial-up with every conceivable quality and pricing options. Also theres some companies offering special connections to companies, I imagine high quality dsl or t1s, I dont know.

chao
Jajirov

.br policy

[Carlos Laviola]

At least concerning domain names, the Brazilian NIC [registro.br] is very controlling. You can't register domain names without the proper documentation to ensure that you are a .com. The policies for other domains, like .net.br, are even worse: you have to be a "networking company" - like a telecom - in order to get one of those domains. That, together with the fact that they overcharge a lot, is like a "please go register a .com instead of a .com.br " request.



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Re:Canada

[yamla]

The under-18 thing is from back in the BBS days (could be earlier, I suppose). You are not permitted to allow under-18s on to a computer network that allows profanity. You have two options... eliminate the profanity or do not allow under-18s on. Of course, the Internet is rife with profanity. :)

Of course, most ISP's require an adult to sign up for access and then turn a blind eye to the fact that their kids also use it.

--

Canada

[yamla]

In Canada, it is officially illegal for under-18's to access the Internet. Furthermore, it is officially illegal to route any network traffic originating in Canada and destined for a location also in Canada, through any foreign country including the U.S.

Of course, neither of these rules are ever enforced to the best of my knowledge.

Apart from that, Canada has reasonable Internet access. Broadband is available in virtually all cities at a rate of $40 a month or less (Canadian, so about $26 U.S.). Often the service is lousy but no more so than in the U.S. In universities here, basically everyone has to have Internet access (perhaps through computer labs on campus), even for psych and philosophy and other such courses.

Outside of universities and colleges, though, probably only a little over fifty percent of people use the Internet regularly.

--

Sweden

[ayjay29]

The broadband companies are out in force in Stockholm. Many people live in appartment blocks which are maintained by a cooperation. A lot of the appartments are being wired for broadband access. It's about $15 - $20 a month and you get up to 100MBPS, with little or no installation charge. They are also laying broadband cables to houses in the city too. I got my line fittet last month, can't wail till it's connected up!!!

Switzerland

[CaptainZapp]

Registration is performed by SWITCH, which is a non profit organization.

Here's a link which should answer your questions regarding registration policy [www.nic.ch].

From my own experience they do a fine job.

México: Non existent

[kilroy_hau]

Summary of internet state in México:

Less than 1% of the population has internet access, so it's not one of our main concerns.

The few that have internet use only 56k modems (except in Monterrey where there is cable, but is not a very good service). The main ISP is TELMEX, a monopoly of communications that disconnects you every 5 minutes (or less), so you have to pay for another phone call. The rest of the ISP's are not better, low bandwith, no connections, etc. So we don't use the internet as entertainer as the USA does, we use it only if we need it.

Even universities don't have broadband access and students don't have personal web pages. Only corporations with heavy risk capital can put web sites that have real content, but for the reasons stated above, nobody regulates them.

Japan

[vanzilar1]

There's a whole lot of internet in Japan. I use livedoor.com usually which is totally free for 56K modems. (Except for the phone bill which is a local call so its cheap but I have to use NTT for my phone (at least partially) which is also a governemnt monopoly). Because livedoor is free sometimes it goes down and I use one of the other many many internet providers which make you pay is USD 8 dollars a month. I use Dreamnet as my other ISP, there's also the scary MSN, and some other cool ones like BIG-Globe and Earth-Web and AOL etc etc. 3 years ago I got disconnected all the time here, but now its pretty good, especially because everyone's gone to ISDN, cable and other stuff and only a small number of use still use these antiquated 56k modems. No censorship that I know of. Except in big Non-Japanese corporations on their own employees, which is fine. There is cable and all sorts of faster stuff everywhere. Even Cell Phones do the internet. There are 3 Cell Phone internet providers DoCoMo J-Phone and KDDI. DoCoMo uses i-mode (no WAP, but does do JAVA and is slowly going global), KDDI uses a WAP derivative, and J-Phone uses something else, J-Sky, whatever that is. (Its slow and has some annoying restrictions from experience like a 7k limit on sound files!!!!) (sorry off topic) These services are more expensive per-use than a home computer but actually quite affordable as well. At work we have PSI-NET which I just heard is doing quite bad on the stock market (oh well). I started using the internet here in Japan in Kanazawa in 1996. All students (except for us foreigners) had to have laptops! Everyone was wired?!?!? So its been here for awhile already. I still don't have a laptop :( I should buy one. Of course I used the internet before that in the US. Life is good here.

ISP information

[UF_Fan]

go to the CIA world factbook and look under any nation under communications and you will find information abou their ISPs.

Singapore

[jotaeleemeese]

This is the jewel of Internet access.

All the internet access goes through a proxy server which censors everything according to what the goverment deems correct, which of course includes anti goverment stuff, p()rn, etc. but can also include lame stuff as Cosmopolitan for who knows which bizarre reasons.
People of oposition parties have been thrown in jail or legaly arrased (sued for something they said until they are out of money, in courts that surpise, surprise, always favour the gov.sg) for something that appeared in USENET attributed to them (i.e. who knows who put the name of oposition politician in post). Etc. ad nauseam.

UK

[jotaeleemeese]

A lot of choice, perhaps the best in the world:

-Many providers charge just for the phone call for speeds up to 56K.

-Some providers bundle free Internet (completely free, one can hang on for around 2 hours before being disconnected, one just dials in again) access if combined with other services like phone cable or digital TV.

-Affordable broadband is beginning, one company offers it for 40 GBP (1GBP=1.45US$)per month. Another offers DSL for 20.

Censorship: most stuff is OK, only the absolutely unacceptable is prosecuted by police, if there is censorship very often are ISPs taking preventive measures on their own, not necesarily goverment intervention.

In several court cases ISPs or message boards have been found liable for what people post in their services.

The UK goverment is aiming to be very intrusive in digital comunication (the old "we need to fight the criminals" stuff); one does not have any right of privacy at work when it comes to the Internet.

Promotion:

Mixed, in one hand the gov is trying to give access to all to the Internet, easing work permits for foreigner with IT skills but in the other hand they are pestering IT contractors with unecesary, hazzy, badly written regulations to close supossed "loopholes" when tax time comes.

Apparently there's this fucked up country...

[Rogerborg]

... where 75% of narrowband surfers are tied to an ISP that charges them a fortune for the priviledge of handing out their confidential information to anyone who asks, where the government censors citizens' net access, where innovation is smothered by a patent, copyright and legal system that ensures that access to lawyers, not conformance with laws, decides right from wrong, where private corporations use government money to perform global control of the internet by fiat and decree, where...

Yeah, I'd hate to live in a foreign country like the USA. Those guys have seriously lost the plot.

State of play down under

[nfras]

This is what we have in Australia.
The internet backbone is run by Telstra, formerly Telecom Australia, a semi privatised company with 51% goverment ownership. About 95% of ISPs buy their backbone access through Telstra with only very large ISPs able to afford the cost of putting in their own transatlantic lines so that situation is unlikely to change.
Dialup is available at local call access nationwide, with calls costing 25c or less, untimed. Most ISPs offer unlimted time for about $25 ($12.50US). WAP is available but very slow (as it is in the rest of the world) and broadband is also available in some metropolitan areas. Cable is available but the speeds are generally capped to protect the bandwidth. This is a good and a bad thing, it protects the network but many people don't like the cap. I think that if it keeps it stable, it is worth it. The cost is about $70 ($35US) a month for unlimited but capped.
ADSL has been available for about the past 6 months. It is being run out very differntly than in the US. Users need an ADSL modem at their location and a splitter rather than have it done at the exchange. Apparently, DSL providers are watching us with interest, to see if it comes out more stable than the shoddy network you guys seem to have. DSL is also pretty much a monopoly as Telstra owns all the phone exchanges.
With regards to other things, domain names in the .au domain are very restricted. You must be a registered Australian business to get one, and they can't be too generic or a place name or a dictionary word. they must also be derived from your registered business name. That means that if Coca-Cola tried to register Coke.com.au they wouldn't be able to as coke is not directly derivative of Coca Cola, it contains letters that the latter does not, get the picture. While this prevents the blatent abuses that the .com domain name boom has seen, it is a bit too restrictive and is under review as I understand it.
Porn is a hotspot in Oz. From my understanding, you cannot host offensive or pornographic content on a server in Australia. If you do, the government can fine you for each day it remains on view. I think the fines are about $10k a day, so pretty hefty fines. As far as I know, there is no porn hosted in Australia.
Email and privacy in the workplace is in a state of flux. I heard a while ago that the government is putting in place a law which will require companies to not look at emails and internet browsing done on ompany time. Apparently the government views having internet access at work like having a phone, it is fair to say that you can use it for personal use as well. I think this is a very sensible way to go.
On the other hand, it has been decided that any email you send is automatically copyrighted. That means that you can sue someone who forwards your email without your express permission. Now, it has been pointed out, in this very forum, that it could mean that forwarding spam to [e-mail] could land you in court for breach of copyright.
Well, that's my take on the state of this nation

Myanmar

[dotlocalhost]

Never been there, but read a quote in the New York Times once that follows: "In Myanmar, internet use is outlawed, and anyone caught abusing a modem is sentenced to 15 years in jail."