The Impact of Cybercommunications On Telecommunications
Conference 2: Technology and Economics
 
May 17, 1996
Schapiro Auditorium
Columbia University
Sponsored by the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information.

Conference Papers Summary Program

About the Conference

The first CITI conference on the impact of cybercommunications on telecommunications (March 8, 1996) analyzed the entry of computer based communications into traditional markets and traditional carrier responses.

This second conference will examine the the issues and obstacles facing the internet and other computer based network infrastructures as they compete to become multi-level communications providers.

Future conferences in this series will examine:

  • The Impact of Cybercommunications and Intranets On Corporations
  • The Impact of Cybercommunications on Mass Media
  • National and International Regulatory Frameworks For Cybercommunications
  • The Role of Cybercommunications in Electronic Commerce

9:00am Opening Remarks

9:15am Cybernetworks Demos

Panel 1: Technology of Cybernetworks

  • What technology is required to integrate various cyber-services with general telecommunications traffic?
  • Will existing services be adaptable to use on cybernetworks?
  • Will existing protocols be technically sufficient to provide for the types and volumes of traffic likely to be carried by cybernets?

Panel 2: pricing issues for cybernetworks

  • On what will cybernetwork service billing be based? Usage? Mileage? MegaBytes? Content viewed? Service used?
  • How will costs of cybernetwork access to traditional telecommunication carriers be determined?
  • How will common facilities be financed between discrete network operators?

Panel 3: Interconnecting Cybernetworks

  • How will interconnection of cybernetworks into telecommunications networks be accommodated across different network types and architectures, and vice versa?
  • Who owns and manages the points of interconnection?
  • What kind of arbitrage will evolve from multiple network interconnection?
  • What is the nature of "logical" interconnection of software and of network-control functions?

5:30pm Cocktails

Participants (partial list)

Charles Ardai, Juno
Earthweb(Java development)
Bob Farzami, BroadBand media inc.
Walter Johnston, Nynex
Eli Noam, Columbia University
A. Michael Noll, University of Southern California
Yakov Rekhter, Cisco Systems
Tatsuo Tanaka, International University of Japan
George Vinall, Cable & Wireless