Internet market model: don't fix what's not broken - OECD

A new OECD report concludes that despite ongoing and future challenges, the existing market model for the Internet has performed remarkably well, boosting growth and competition and driving down prices for data to 100,000 times less than that of a one minute telephone call. The report, entitled Internet Traffic Exchange Market Developments and Policy Challenges argues that governments should largely take a hands-off approach to regulating the Internet market. The report surveyed 4,300 networks, representing 140,000 direct exchanges of traffic on the Internet, and found that 99.5% of “peering agreements” were on a handshake basis, with no written contract and...