roundtable: Sun NII-set-top box testimony
roundtable: Sun NII/set-top box testimony
Sun NII/set-top box testimony
Christine Owens - Sun Washington D.C. (cowens@lobby-3.East.Sun.COM)
Mon, 7 Feb 94 11:35:30 EST
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 94 11:35:30 EST
From: cowens@lobby-3.East.Sun.COM (Christine Owens - Sun Washington D.C.)
Message-Id: <9402071635.AA26793@lobby-3.East.Sun.COM>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Sun NII/set-top box testimony
Please feel free to send any comments or questions
to Christine Owens, via internet at christine.owens@east.sun.com
or via fax at (202) 326-7525. (phone is (202) 326-7521)
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TESTIMONY OF MR. WAYNE ROSING
CORPORATE EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF
SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC.
AND PRESIDENT, FIRST PERSON, INC., A DIVISION OF SUN,
BEFORE THE HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON
TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND FINANCE
FEBRUARY 1, 1994
I would like to thank Chairman Markey and Congressman Fields for
inviting me to testify before their committee today. This hearing will
contribute to the debate on how the Government can help make sure that
all Americans have the opportunity to participate in the new
information age.
How would American consumers feel:
- If they bought a television set and it could only receive
programming offered by one network?
- Or if they could only call people who used the same phone
company?
- Or if they could only buy tires for their Chevy, from GM?
I don't think they would be very happy. Why not? Because people value
and depend on interoperability, access, and choice.
Each of the examples I've just used illustrates a product that depends
on the interoperability of its components, and utilizes standard
interface specifications to achieve it. Television sets can be said
to interoperate with broadcast TV signals; telephones interoperate
seamlessly across the phone network; and automobile wheels
interoperate with cars and tires. Interoperability is what allows
systems with multiple components to work together, and it creates the
opportunity for the existence of competing, interchangeable
implementations.
The success of the national information infrastructure also depends on
interoperability. Each of its components must be able to communicate
with the other components - that is, to interoperate.
Interoperability between the components of any system, in turn, depends
on the use of widely accepted standard interfaces. Interfaces are the
connection points between the pieces of a system. For example, the
standard connection jack on the back of all your stereo gear at home,
is a standard interface. Their use allows you to update your stereo
with a CD player and a surround-sound amplifier to create a home
entertainment center, if you so desire.
A crucial distinction must be made between interface specifications -
which are pieces of paper, and implementations - which are actual
products or services. Using the interstate highway system as an
example, the:
Interfaces are the on-ramps and off-ramps to the superhighway.
They are the access, or connection points.
Interface specifications are the roadmaps that tell drivers how
to go from one road to another. They are pieces of paper.
The implementation is the road itself, a ribbon of concrete.
Another everyday example, is the ISO ASA 100 specification for 35mm
film. It is an interface specification. It defines the size of the
film, the spacing of the sprocket holes, and how the film will respond
to light. Camera and film makers compete on the value of their
implementations; no one attempts to profit by controlling the spacing
of the sprocket holes or the size of the film can.
It is important to note that an interface specification does not define
the "recipe" for a product. It would not, for example, specify the
chemical ingredients of film. Such a definition would actually specify
an implementation.
The national information infrastructure will have a number of critical
interfaces. For example, the interface where consumers attach their
"set-top" box to the network; and at the other end, where content
providers enter the digital superhighway to distribute their
information services.
Monopoly control of these critical superhighway interfaces threatens
access and choice - and even the very existence of a true national
information infrastructure. Monopoly, or single-point control would
restrict or eliminate access to the interface specifications needed by
potential suppliers to create and offer new interoperable products.
Similarly, it would limit the ability of potential players to add new
interfaces and services. This would clearly limit consumers' choices.
Without the pressure of competitive and innovative products or
services, the level of investments made, the pace of innovation, and
the intensity of price competition, would all be reduced. This would:
- hurt all consumers by increasing costs and reducing choices;
- hurt the vast majority of potential service providers who
would have their own access to markets choked off; and
- choke economic growth, by limiting economic participation
to large, established players.
Sun believes that the interface specifications which become standards
in the data superhighway must be free of single-point control and
proprietary barriers. Although implementations - the actual products
and services - can and should be proprietary and built by private
industry, the interface specifications must be barrier-free.
Barrier-free means that the interface specifications are fully and
publicly documented, and freely available to all. This freedom is
true today for the prototype for the digital superhighway, the
Internet. Sun's strong support of open-ness and the concept of
barrier-free is based on our recognition of, and respect for the way of
doing business proven by (D)ARPA and the Internet community over the
last 3 decades.
Barrier-free interface specifications will allow multiple vendors to
create competing yet compatible products. Vendors will benefit from a
greatly enlarged, accessible market; consumers will benefit from lower
costs and greater choice; and the economy will benefit from the
elimination of anti-competitive barriers to the formation of new
companies, industries, and models of service provision.
Although it may seem counter-intuitive, many companies [including Sun]
and entire industries have thrived in business environments using
barrier-free interface specifications. For example:
- camera and film makers (share the film interface
specifications)
- tire and auto makers (share the wheel interface
specifications)
- the TCP/IP networking protocol used in most large
government computer networks
- engine and oil companies (share the interface
specifications for SAE 10W-40 motor oil)
- basketball makers (who make ``regulation size" balls
to fit through standard basketball rims),
- and all electrical appliance makers (who use standard
cords and plugs).
In each case, the companies compete on the basis of their
implementations, not the interface specifications.
The impact of the NII, like the interstate highway system, the
telephone network, or NTSC broadcast television, has the potential to
touch and change the lives of every future American. That is why it is
fundamentally different from other industries and why the Government
alone has a responsibility, and the ability, to guarantee access and
choice, by mandating barrier-free interfaces. To do this the
Government should take two actions:
1. Designate critical NII interfaces as barrier-free. Sun
recommends that the FCC establish a broad-based committee made
up of representatives from consumer groups, government,
industry, and academia, to identify the critical interfaces
which must remain barrier-free;
2. Set the policy: legislatively define what constitutes
barrier-free, along the lines of the following principles:
- Interfaces must be defined by a fully and publicly documented
specification
- These specifications must be available for use by anyone
- They must be free of all license fees
- Free of intellectual property restrictions
- Free of commercial trademark control
- Changed only with timely notice
- Provide criteria for objective conformance testing, and
- Open on both sides of the interface (like film, wheels,
televisions).
In doing so, it is crucial that the Government NOT select specific
implementations posing as standards - that would freeze innovation and
greatly limit all the benefits of competition. The Government's role
in the information superhighway should be to set the rules, not pick
the winners. Let the market - consumers and producers - do that.
The ultimate success of the national information infrastructure depends
on the contributions, the experimentation, and the entrepreneurial
efforts of many service providers. Their participation requires the
freedom of access to the NII as a major new medium of commerce, that
only barrier-free interface specifications make possible.
The technologies which make the digital superhighway possible, hold the
potential for new, billion dollar industries in the United States.
They will present massive new business and job opportunities. They
can, and will, increase our nation's lead in the information, software
services, and entertainment sectors of the global economy and thereby
fuel exports of high value goods and services. A timely government
decision to specify the use of barrier-free interfaces in the next
superhighway, would help to ensure that it achieves that potential.
Thank you.
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