"The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online. We face the prospect of virtual toll booths on the information highway..."

The End of the Internet-

Jeff Chester, February 1, 2006 The Nation (web only)

The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.

Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers--would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.

Under the plans they are considering, all of us--from content providers to individual users--would pay more to surf online, stream videos or even send e-mail. Industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received.

To make this pay-to-play vision a reality, phone and cable lobbyists are now engaged in a political campaign to further weaken the nation's communications policy laws. They want the federal government to permit them to operate Internet and other digital communications services as private networks, free of policy safeguards or governmental oversight. Indeed, both the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are considering proposals that will have far-reaching impact on the Internet's future. Ten years after passage of the ill-advised Telecommunications Act of 1996, telephone and cable companies are using the same political snake oil to convince compromised or clueless lawmakers to subvert the Internet into a turbo-charged digital retail machine.

The telephone industry has been somewhat more candid than the cable industry about its strategy for the Internet's future. Senior phone executives have publicly discussed plans to begin imposing a new scheme for the delivery of Internet content, especially from major Internet content companies. As Ed Whitacre, chairman and CEO of AT&T, told Business Week in November, "Why should they be allowed to use my pipes- The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment, and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!"

The phone industry has marshaled its political allies to help win the freedom to impose this new broadband business model. At a recent conference held by the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a think tank funded by Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and other media companies, there was much discussion of a plan for phone companies to impose fees on a sliding scale, charging content providers different levels of service. "Price discrimination," noted PFF's resident media expert Adam Thierer, "drives the market-based capitalist economy."

Net Neutrality

To ward off the prospect of virtual toll booths on the information highway, some new media companies and public-interest groups are calling for new federal policies requiring "network neutrality" on the Internet. Common Cause, Amazon, Google, Free Press, Media Access Project and Consumers Union, among others, have proposed that broadband providers would be prohibited from discriminating against all forms of digital content. For example, phone or cable companies would not be allowed to slow down competing or undesirable content.

Without proactive intervention, the values and issues that we care about--civil rights, economic justice, the environment and fair elections--will be further threatened by this push for corporate control. Imagine how the next presidential election would unfold if major political advertisers could make strategic payments to Comcast so that ads from Democratic and Republican candidates were more visible and user-friendly than ads of third-party candidates with less funds. Consider what would happen if an online advertisement promoting nuclear power prominently popped up on a cable broadband page, while a competing message from an environmental group was relegated to the margins. It is possible that all forms of civic and noncommercial online programming would be pushed to the end of a commercial digital queue.

But such "neutrality" safeguards are inadequate to address more fundamental changes the Bells and cable monopolies are seeking in their quest to monetize the Internet. If we permit the Internet to become a medium designed primarily to serve the interests of marketing and personal consumption, rather than global civic-related communications, we will face the political consequences for decades to come. Unless we push back, the "brandwashing" of America will permeate not only our information infrastructure but global society and culture as well.

Why are the Bells and cable companies aggressively advancing such plans- With the arrival of the long-awaited "convergence" of communications, our media system is undergoing a major transformation. Telephone and cable giants envision a potential lucrative "triple play," as they impose near-monopoly control over the residential broadband services that send video, voice and data communications flowing into our televisions, home computers, cell phones and iPods. All of these many billions of bits will be delivered over the telephone and cable lines.

Video programming is of foremost interest to both the phone and cable companies. The telephone industry, like its cable rival, is now in the TV and media business, offering customers television channels, on-demand videos and games. Online advertising is increasingly integrating multimedia (such as animation and full-motion video) in its pitches. Since video-driven material requires a great deal of Internet bandwidth as it travels online, phone and cable companies want to make sure their television "applications" receive preferential treatment on the networks they operate. And their overall influence over the stream of information coming into your home (or mobile device) gives them the leverage to determine how the broadband business evolves.

Mining Your Data

At the core of the new power held by phone and cable companies are tools delivering what is known as "deep packet inspection." With these tools, AT&T and others can readily know the packets of information you are receiving online--from e-mail, to websites, to sharing of music, video and software downloads.

These "deep packet inspection" technologies are partly designed to make sure that the Internet pipeline doesn't become so congested it chokes off the delivery of timely communications. Such products have already been sold to universities and large businesses that want to more economically manage their Internet services. They are also being used to limit some peer-to-peer downloading, especially for music.

But these tools are also being promoted as ways that companies, such as Comcast and Bell South, can simply grab greater control over the Internet. For example, in a series of recent white papers, Internet technology giant Cisco urges these companies to "meter individual subscriber usage by application," as individuals' online travels are "tracked" and "integrated with billing systems." Such tracking and billing is made possible because they will know "the identity and profile of the individual subscriber," "what the subscriber is doing" and "where the subscriber resides."

Will Google, Amazon and the other companies successfully fight the plans of the Bells and cable companies- Ultimately, they are likely to cut a deal because they, too, are interested in monetizing our online activities. After all, as Cisco notes, content companies and network providers will need to "cooperate with each other to leverage their value proposition." They will be drawn by the ability of cable and phone companies to track "content usage...by subscriber," and where their online services can be "protected from piracy, metered, and appropriately valued."

Our Digital Destiny

It was former FCC chairman Michael Powell, with the support of then-commissioner and current chair Kevin Martin, who permitted phone and cable giants to have greater control over broadband. Powell and his GOP majority eliminated longstanding regulatory safeguards requiring phone companies to operate as nondiscriminatory networks (technically known as "common carriers"). He refused to require that cable companies, when providing Internet access, also operate in a similar nondiscriminatory manner. As Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig has long noted, it is government regulation of the phone lines that helped make the Internet today's vibrant, diverse and democratic medium.

But now, the phone companies are lobbying Washington to kill off what's left of "common carrier" policy. They wish to operate their Internet services as fully "private" networks. Phone and cable companies claim that the government shouldn't play a role in broadband regulation: Instead of the free and open network that offers equal access to all, they want to reduce the Internet to a series of business decisions between consumers and providers.

Besides their business interests, telephone and cable companies also have a larger political agenda. Both industries oppose giving local communities the right to create their own local Internet wireless or wi-fi networks. They also want to eliminate the last vestige of local oversight from electronic media--the ability of city or county government, for example, to require telecommunications companies to serve the public interest with, for example, public-access TV channels. The Bells also want to further reduce the ability of the FCC to oversee communications policy. They hope that both the FCC and Congress--via a new Communications Act--will back these proposals.

The future of the online media in the United States will ultimately depend on whether the Bells and cable companies are allowed to determine the country's "digital destiny." So before there are any policy decisions, a national debate should begin about how the Internet should serve the public. We must insure that phone and cable companies operate their Internet services in the public interest--as stewards for a vital medium for free expression.

If Americans are to succeed in designing an equitable digital destiny for themselves, they must mount an intensive opposition similar to the successful challenges to the FCC's media ownership rules in 2003. Without such a public outcry to rein in the GOP's corporate-driven agenda, it is likely that even many of the Democrats who rallied against further consolidation will be "tamed" by the well-funded lobbying campaigns of the powerful phone and cable industry. The Nation

Read About Deep Packet Inspection

February 02, 2006 #2006-14pc (issued by portfolio company)

In First Week, Newly Launched Company Addressing Next Generation of the Internet Merges with Agile Software Leader; Command Information and Digital Focus Join Forces to Aid Government and Fortune 1000 Companies with Burgeoning IPv6 Market

Herndon,VA - The nation is transitioning from the current Internet protocol to IPv6, a more robust, secure and flexible way to communicate over the Internet. Leading the transition, Command Information launches this week to provide government organizations and Fortune 1000 companies with solutions and services every step of the way of their IPv6 migration. The company is backed by investments from The Carlyle Group and Novak Biddle Venture Partners.

"IPv6 is vital to the future competitiveness of industry and Government,- said Charles Rossotti, senior partner at Carlyle. -We have invested in Command Information to help organizations realize the benefits that come from this next generation technology."

In a move to quickly expand its delivery capabilities, Command Information this week also merged with Digital Focus (www.digitalfocus.com), a leader in Agile software development and integration services. For a decade Digital Focus has provided software development, agile coaching, and IT consulting services to Fortune 1000 and medium-sized businesses, including one of the country-s largest Internet service providers and Web portals. The merger gives Command Information the capability to deliver working software for clients that leverage the new features and functions of IPv6, while meeting organizational needs. With more than 75 employees, post-merger the company will continue operating as Digital Focus, a Command Information company.

-Our merger with Command Information will create the first entity designed to address a company-s entire IPv6 migration,- said Dianne Houghton, CEO of Digital Focus. -Tom Patterson, Jim Ungerleider and the entire Command Information leadership team bring a wealth of expertise in Internet technology to complement our talent at Digital Focus.-

Tom Patterson, chief executive officer and former chief strategist of e-Commerce at IBM, will guide the new company-s overall strategy and business development. Jim Ungerleider, a former executive with American Management Systems, will serve as president and chief operating officer of the new Herndon, VA-based company.

Command Information (www.CommandInformation.com) provides services and solutions in the six critical business areas affected by the IPv6 migration, including:

- IPv6 strategy
- application development
- application and infrastructure security
- mobile convergence and telematics
- business and information strategy
- network architecture and implementation.

Command Information Merges With Digital Focus/2

-IPv6 will have a dramatic impact in corporate security, mobility, supply chain management and other key business functions worldwide,- said Patterson. -We believe that to really help organizations leverage this new technology, we need to incorporate great companies like Digital Focus that can deliver real results for our clients. the carlyle group

Brooke B. Coburn - Managing Director, The Carlyle Group - on the Board of Command Informations

The Command Information leadership team is dedicated to helping organizations leverage the changes of IPv6 – a common mission that guides us in our strategies, solutions, and client service experiences.

Brooke B. Coburn is a Managing Director focused on early- and growth-stage investments, and small leveraged buyouts, in the U.S. telecommunications, media, technology and business services sectors. He is based in Washington, DC.

Since joining Carlyle in 1996, Mr. Coburn has been actively involved with the firm's investments in Bredband (B2), CityNet Telecom (merged with Universal Access), Core Location (acquired by El Paso Global Networks), DigiPlex S.A., Genesis Cable (acquired by Benchmark Communications), Matrics Technologies (acquired by Symbol Technologies), Neptune Communications (acquired by Global Crossing), NorthPoint Communications, Pacific Telecom Cable, Prime Communications (acquired by Comcast), Sonitrol Holding Corp., WCI Cable and Wall Street Education.

Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Coburn was with Salomon Brothers, Inc. where he focused on M&A and capital raising assignments in the Media & Communications Group.

Mr. Coburn received his A.B. from Princeton University with honors.

Mr. Coburn is on the Board of Directors of BNX Systems, Matrics, Inc., Sonitrol Holding Corp., LLC, WCI Cable, Inc. and Wall Street Education.

this from Command Informations site:

Leveraging IPv6

The Internet is the most significant technological advancement of the information age. It powers industry, drives commerce, helps us communicate, and stands as the greatest repository of knowledge in the history of mankind - and it is all built on a protocol that was developed over 30 years ago.

IPv6 is the next generation Internet protocol - designed with superior scalability, reliability, flexibility and security. Under development since the mid 90-s, IPv6 is now ready for deployment across the globe and is changing the very foundation of the Internet.

Why do we need IPv6-

Internet protocol employs a series of hosts that collaborate to transmit data via the Internet. Devices connected to a network, whether a local area network (LAN) or the Internet itself, receive Internet protocol numbers-essentially a kind of virtual address that uniquely identifies each device.

In its current form, Internet protocol (IPv4) can accommodate four billion unique addresses. While that sounds substantial, the practical number of usable addresses is actually much lower. This restriction is quickly becoming an unacceptable burden for today-s applications. In fact, none of the information packets transmitted today are guaranteed to reach their specific destinations in original condition. To account for that shortcoming, other protocols are often simultaneously used to augment the transmission and ensure data integrity - often with limited success.

IPv6, on the other hand, would support unique addresses well beyond the trillions, two to the one-hundred twenty-eighth power. To get a sense of the actual amount, imagine a three with 39 zeroes behind it. IPv6 will not only eliminate the shortcomings of IPv4, but unlock new products and services that were previously unthinkable.

The appeal of an Internet protocol with essentially limitless addresses is that it will easily support the inevitable proliferation of personal wireless devices. Four billion addresses were once enough because they were intended for computers alone. Today, and in the years ahead, there will be dozens, if not hundreds of devices for each and every potential Internet user. That explosive growth demands the effectively incalculable depth of addresses only available from the improved Internet protocol, IPv6.

Why is IPv6 critical to my organization-

Organizations are turning to IPv6 to bolster their competitive position in the global marketplace. IPv6 will significantly improve capabilities in security, privacy, location-based services, networking, and mobility to open up new areas of business solutions that were previously impossible, and indeed allow the development of advanced applications that cannot yet even be imagined.

IPv6-enabled organizations will be able to support:

Virtual Private Networks that keep information safe and secure no matter where the employee goes or what device they use for access.
Customer Relationship Management systems that not only know who a customer is, but also where they are.
Supply Chain Management systems that allow for easier integration and tracking of products throughout the world.
Privacy policies that can be effectively enforced.
Company networks that can safely and economically integrate phones, PDAs, and broadband to the home.
Human relations systems that can safely leverage global workforces, work from home staffing, and ad-hoc teaming.

Where is IPv6 currently being deployed-

Deployment is occurring rapidly in both Asia and Europe. The Department of Defense and Civilian agencies of the U.S. Federal Government have both mandated the adoption of IPv6 by 2008.

Are any non-government entities currently integrating IPv6-

Governments are not the only ones racing to integrate IPv6. Private and public companies are spending millions to test and integrate IPv6 technologies. Some of these companies include HP, Cisco, Apple, IBM, Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Sony, British Telecom, NEC, Hitachi, Matsushita, and Juniper Networks.

Any commercial company that works with the government, or supports other organization that work with the government, can gain competitive advantage using IPv6.

command information