Think-Tanks'Press

On 4 March, the Washington Post reported that Cogent Communications, a leading Internet backbone provider, would stop providing service to its Russian clients.

In its role as a transit provider, charging other networks to carry traffic to the rest of the Internet, this action will result in one less path for international connectivity being available for Russian networks.

However, as one of the largest transit providers in the world, the impact could be significant, as many of Cogent’s Russian customers are also some of Russia’s largest networks — including the state-owned telecom Rostelecom.

This action was later followed by another large transit provider Lumen, announcing a similar decision to cut ties with its Russian clients.

British consumers have become accustomed to using their mobile phones without incurring any additional charges while visiting the EU. Prominent Brexiters promised that free roaming in the EU for UK consumers would continue after Brexit. But three of the four major UK mobile network operators – Vodafone, EE, and Three – have recently announced the return of roaming charges. 

The proposed charges are modest, and The Economist argues they will actually make the UK mobile market fairer – because consumers who do not roam will no longer have to cover the costs of those who do.

There is a real risk, though, that wholesale charges will increase for UK operators and converge with the wholesale charges for other non-EEA countries. EU operators could charge UK operators more, knowing that UK operators could once again pass on higher EU wholesale charges directly to consumers through retail roaming charges.

Operators will once again be able to act on their incentives to set high prices for reciprocal traffic, to justify higher retail prices – in Poland, for example, the major operators have already signaled that they will charge consumers for roaming in the UK in the future.

Finally, retail roaming charges mean that UK consumers will reduce their use of roaming to some extent – for example, by relying on less convenient alternatives like Wi-Fi hotspots when traveling – making it less attractive for foreign operators to compete for UK operators’ roaming traffic. Collectively, these factors may lead to higher wholesale charges. That would cause even higher retail charges, as UK mobile operators would try to maximize profits from those customers who will continue to use roaming services even at high rates.

September 1, 2021, marked the official start of operations at the Haifa Bayport Terminal. In recent years, Israeli media publications have raised concerns about the port’s operation by a Chinese state-owned company, particularly in view of the growing rivalry between China and the United  States. The official opening of the port is an opportunity to revisit the issue.

In a nutshell, the port operator is a private Israeli company, indeed owned by a  Chinese company, yet most of its employees are Israelis, apart from a few Chinese management staff.

As for the concerns about disruption to port activity during emergencies or exertion of pressure on the Israeli government, the probability and severity of these risks appear to be limited:

– Bayport will not be owned by its operator;

– Bayport is subject to Israeli law and in emergencies must operate according to the instructions of the Israeli security authorities, just like Israel’s other ports;

– if the operator does not comply with these terms, it risks committing a breach of contract and the Government of Israel will be fully entitled to replace it.

As for espionage risks: for purposes of line-of-sight observation and reception, the Bayport Terminal is no nearer to the Israeli naval base than many civilian buildings in Haifa, yet its location on the water line does indeed offer the potential for gathering acoustic intelligence (signatures of vessels and especially submarines), a potential that exists in principle in transiting commercial vessels as well.