The COOK Report on Internet Protocol: Technology, Economics,& Policy Mission Statement

The COOK Report on the Internet Protocol: Technology, Policy, and Economics is a monthly newsletter focusing on the technology of IP infrastructure and its economic and policy consequences. In the wake of the telecom collapse, in trying to make sense of what had happened and see where the future might lead, we have broadened the coverage of the COOK Report considerably. Why? Because short of the power grid and the physical highways on which we travel, the economic viability of the globe's most important infrastructural system was called into question by the IP revolution.

While the technology is not stopping its advancement, in every developed nation around the globe, the paramount issues quickly became the viability of the incumbent phone company. The technology destroyed the economic proposition on which an infrastructural system critical to the health of every national economy rested. The success of the new technology destroyed the economics of the old technology. The sirens heard were those of the national policy systems coming to the rescue. Policy is often slow to change but for the second time in a decade in the US we are now beginning to see some extremely important policy changes.

The efficiency and power of the technology continues to make new business propositions possible. We shall continue to identify them. Nevertheless, we are making this name change to alert our readers to the fact that we shall continue to chronicle the opportunities created by the Internet Protocol and packet switching during a period of time where the "public Internet" may well no longer be at the forefront of change. The economic shoe dropped two years ago. We are now going to be treated to the policy shoe. Things will no longer be the same.

We shall continue to focus on broadband on DSL versus cable and fiber to the home issues. We shall emphasize wireless at all levels - including wireless sensor networks and pervasive computing. Voice over IP will be the subject of an issue we hope in time for spring VON. Peering, and changes of network architecture including viral and mesh networks is on our radar. The impact of regulatory decisions on this cannot be ignored. We will report on them and on their consequences for ISPs.

In the US the telecommunications marketplace may never again be as large. Nevertheless it is and will remain huge and globally it will likely continue to grow in size. The COOK Report on the Internet Protocol: Technology, Economics and Policy will continue to report on the business cases made possible by the on going shift in the three tectonic plates of IP.

The COOK Report has been published since April 1992. Having no advertisments, the Report is 100% subscriber funded. Long interviews (5,000 to 15,000 words) and symposium discussion by industryt leaders on these issues are our hallmark. More than 50 site licenses that include the largest corporations in the industry make the COOK Report available to every employee. The result is both a broad reach and a viable economy of scale. As we look forward to beginning our 13th year of publication, to our knowledge, we offer the only independent publication focused on these issues.

The COOK Report Helps Subscribers ...

-- to understand the interaction between new technology, exponential growth, and efforts to define a viable business model for the global communications. It seeks to illuminate the ways in which new all IP and optical technologies are making internet technology (as in TCP/IP) a common denominator for telecommunications of all kinds globally.

-- and to understand the technology and marketplace strategy of the incumbents; to understand the on-going policy battles as ones that will affect the power to shape and control telecommunications globally.

-- Through interviews that have ranged in length from five to eighteen thousand words, through symposia (edited private mail list discussions) and less an less frequently by means of summaries of critical public mail list discussions, The COOK Report keeps its readers fully informed of important new developments in IP technology econoomics and policy. Readers turn to it for a depth of coverage unavailable in the "trade press."