DSL Prime: Trouble in Broadband Paradise

A serious violation of net neutrality in South Korea, and troubling health data in some new studies.

by Dave Burstein of DSL Prime and Future of TV [November 6, 2006]

Cable Operators Blocking Internet TV
Korea first in world again
Two million cable modem subscribers and one million LG Powercomm broadband customers are being blocked from watching video from video on demand service HanaTV, Korea Times reports. Korea's innovative Hanaro, #2 to Korea Telecom in broadband, has signed up 60,000 customers for video on demand in the first three months. KT Vice President Shim Ju-kyo tells Korea Times, "We are 100 percent ready to introduce internet TV services and we will do so next year as soon as the legal framework is set up."

LG's sister company, Dacom, has an IPTV offering of their own in the works. Hanaro is controlled by U.S. investors AIG and Newbridge, while Goldman Sachs and Bill Kennard's Carlyle Group have been investing in Korean cable companies.

The Korea Cable TV Association is maintaining "IPTV is a broadcasting, not a telecommunications service" and boycotting the Hanaro offering. Cable networks have been fighting a regulatory battle to keep telcos out of the TV business. The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) and the Korea Broadcasting Commission (KBC) are likely to come together as a single government body. The Broadcasting and Telecommunications Convergence Committee has come up with a final proposal to merge the two regulatory bodies, which the government should soon endorse.

I hope Korean readers will help keep me informed on this story, which is the most significant breach of "network neutrality" yet reported. The facts speak clearly, but if I added a little color this story would rapidly spread around the press.

Startling Results: Cell Phone Infertility, Chip Manufacturing Cancers
If confirmed, major changes required
My uninformed intuition has doubts, but respected researchers have reported results suggesting heavy cell phone use has a major impact on fertility. Dr. Ashok Agarwal of the Cleveland Clinic and colleagues studied 364 men with possible infertility problems.

"There was a significant decrease in the most important measures of sperm health and that should definitely be reflected in a decrease in fertility. People use mobile phones without thinking twice what the consequences may be. … Those who did not use mobiles at all averaged a sperm count of 86 million per millilitre (m/ml), 68 per cent adequate motility, and 40 per cent normal forms. The men who said they used their handsets for less than two hours per day averaged sperm counts of 69 m/ml, 65 per cent motility and 31 per cent good morphology. Participants who used their phones for between two and four hours had averages for sperm count, motility and morphology of 59 m/ml, 55 per cent and 21 per cent respectively. Men using their mobiles for four hours or more daily averaged sperm counts of 50m/ml, 45 per cent adequate motility and 18 per cent well-shaped sperm." He added an important hesitation, "We still have a long way to go to prove this."

The Telegraph added details of previous studies that were also suggestive, but also the thought of andrologist Allan Pacey, "Maybe people who use a phone for four hours a day spend more time in cars, which could mean there's a heat issue. It could be they are more stressed, or more sedentary and sit about eating junk food getting fat. Those seem to be better explanations than a phone causing the damage at such a great distance." This isn't a DSL story, but if confirmed is of crucial importance to telcos.

Separately, DSL chip manufacturers should carefully review Boston University Professor Richard Clapp's analysis comparing cancer rates in IBM semiconductor workers with the general population. "Proportional cancer mortality ratios (PCMRs) for brain and central nervous system cancer were elevated (PCMR=166; 95 percent CI=129 to 213), kidney cancer (PCMR=162; 95 percent CI=124 to 212), melanoma of skin (PCMR=179; 95 percent CI=131 to 244) and pancreatic cancer (PCMR=126; 95 percent CI=101 to 157) were significantly elevated in male manufacturing workers. Kidney cancer (PCMR=212; 95 percent CI=116 to 387) and cancer of all lymphatic and hematopoietic tissue (PCMR=162; 95 percent CI=121 to 218) were significantly elevated in female manufacturing workers."

His conclusion: "Mortality was elevated due to specific cancers and among workers more likely to be exposed to solvents and other chemical exposures in manufacturing operations." IBM previously won in court against workers who sued on this issue, and the results have to be considered still "unproven." Rick Merritt and Michael Santarini of EE Times have been following this story for at least four years.

Copyright 2006 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

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