PECNs continued
After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing over Twitter, it dawned on me that I missed a trick in my previous write-up of PECNs.
Let’s see that definition again:
“Public Electronic Communications Network” means an Electronic Communications Network provided wholly or mainly for the purpose of making Electronic Communications Services available to members of the public
The part I missed was the distinction between an Electronic Communications Service (ECS) and a Content Service (CS). It’s basically this: an ECS is for direct communication between entities, while a CS is a publishing service. Again, there will be grey areas, but that’s it in a nutshell.
The reason why this is important is because it has a bearing on whether an ISP is a PECN or not.
In days gone by, the main reason for people getting Internet connectivity was e-mail — that is, an ECS.
Nowadays, I’d argue that isn’t true at all. The main reason that people get Internet access, and so the principal purpose of ISPs’ access products, isn’t to make Electronic Communications Services available to members of the public, but to make Content Services available to members of the public — in other words, the Web. Even the e-mail services that we use are more often than not accessed themselves by way of Content Services, because they’re web-based (and rolled into broader propositions such as Google, Yahoo! and Windows Live).
And so, most ISPs’ access products do not fit the definition given earlier, but instead this one:
an Electronic Communications Network provided wholly or mainly for the purpose of making Content Services available to members of the public
If you read through the General Conditions, you’ll see that there isn’t a name attached to the above definition. In fact, it isn’t even mentioned. It isn’t something which has a special name or regulatory regime beyond those applied to Electronic Communications Networks or Content Services in general. If an access product sold to the public fits this second definition, rather than the one near the top of this post, then it can’t be a PECN.
