Vint Cerf comments on 1) user centric approach to Net Neutrality 2) unbundling

Two interesting remarks by Vint in this interview:

Vint Cerf: we’ve only scratched internet’s surface

1) Straying from the Google NN hard line he endorses, if a little weakly, the Internet Society’s User-centric approach

The ultimate solution, he says, may be a combination of enforced transparency and user tools. If ISPs are required to disclose how they’re managing their networks, and if users are provided with the proper technology to see how their connections are faring at any given time, anti-competitive actions should be hard to conduct without being detected.

“I wouldn’t object out of hand that proposal,” he says. “It has been the means by which some abusive practices have been exposed here in the U.S.”

2) He thinks that unbundling is gaining favour at the FCC & Congress – this directly contradicts recent statements by Blair Levin, overseer of the National Broadband Plan.

Cerf is pleased with the direction the United States is taking in regards to providing internet access to its citizens. Government and regulators there are beginning to favour the sort of open-access rules, where big network-owning companies must rent their infrastructure to other competitors, that have been in place in Europe and parts of Asia for years. Cerf thinks open access is the wave of the future.