So we now have a very clear-cut case of the NSA causing damage to American business: The German government has cancelled a contract with Verizon because of the danger of NSA spying. The contract is about an internal Government network for communication between the ministries. The contract is going to the German company Deutsche Telekom AG instead. From the article:
Verizon has been providing network infrastructure for the German government's Berlin-Bonn network, used for communication between ministries, since 2010, the statement said. The contract is set to expire in 2015.
The government said Deutsche Telekom AG would replace services provided by Verizon, and noted Deutsche Telekom was already responsible for the most sensitive communications between ministries or between the government and German intelligence agencies.
Information on the value of the contract was not immediately available.
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The title says it all. Not only has Verizon's performance become dramatically worse, the company has continued to try and foist the blame for the problem on Netflix, claiming that the online streaming giant is deliberately degrading performance by attempting to stuff data down specific congested Verizon pipes. Unfortunately, a growing body of evidence suggests this isn't true.
In related news, here's an interesting graph of NetFlix speeds from around the time this 'fast lane' discussion was started until now. These ISPs sure make a case for treating them like common carriers.
(Score: 1) by pkrasimirov on Friday June 27 2014, @04:04PM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Friday June 27 2014, @04:11PM
Yep. It's funnier than that though.
None of them care about the their citizens being monitored by the NSA. How else does the product appear available for purchase by their intelligence agencies?
Governments care about themselves being monitored from the very real threat of a Manning type disclosure embarrassing them. Since the NSA can't be trusted anymore to keep their own secrets and personnel in line, they need to hire locally now.
But wait, there's more...
None of this actually stops the NSA. It may make their job *harder*, but it doesn't make it *impossible*.
Just wealth moving around. Everything else stays the same.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Saturday June 28 2014, @04:31AM
All non-gov't personnel around the world are classified as "potential terrorist", rising to "probable terrorist" if the person questions authority.
(Score: 2) by skullz on Friday June 27 2014, @04:47PM
Maybe Verizon will now have a reason to sue the NSA for damages caused by their "gray area" monitoring and put a stop to this for good.
Only Verizon should be allowed to monitor Verizon customers, mine the data, and sell it to the highest bidder. It's just American.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @05:47PM
No matter how venal, hypocritical and self-serving this decision was for the german politicians, I say anything that creates more variety in the marketplace for internet services is good. Concentration of market power with sellers is nearly always bad for customers.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday June 27 2014, @06:08PM
You are aware that the Deutsche Telekom is the German ex-monopolist and market leader? I wouldn't exactly consider this more variety in the marketplace.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @06:33PM
It is in the sense of the world-wide market, which, since I'm not a German resident, is a lot closer to what I care about.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday June 27 2014, @06:46PM
there just needs to be an RIAa type agency to sue the NSA for lost revenue from 'illegal' spying, and it needs to be headed by Jammie Thomas.
as the world turns, so go the contents of my stomach.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3) by bob_super on Friday June 27 2014, @10:29PM
The NSA made copies of all my calls, which are valued by my provider at tens of dollars a month.
Therefore, my provider can sue the NSA for at least that amount, if not triple damages or $50k per illegal copy (I own the IP, but I agreed that they profit from it).
That would be so great if this wasn't disallowed by secret laws and general telco collusion...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @07:38PM
>So we now have a very clear-cut case of the NSA causing damage to American business:
No we don't. International spying is totally normal. We have only the traitor Snowden and his idiot supporters to blame for this.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Friday June 27 2014, @08:10PM
"International spying" as in trying to get information about an enemy or potential enemy government is normal. "International spying" as in trying to gather information about everyone, not so. Nor is "international spying" as in spying on other governments on your own side, or "international spying" as in industrial espionage by the government.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.