Internet pioneer Vint Cerf to push Aussie NBN in the US

Stuart Corner
Monday, 24 January 2011 14:17

IT Industry - Strategy

Internet pioneer Vint Cerf - now chief Internet evangelist at Google - told an Internet industry gathering in Sydney that he was envious of the NBN and would be pushing for the US take a similar approach.

Cerf told a meeting of the Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU) in Sydney: " I am so envious that you have a government that is willing to make the long term infrastructure investment of this magnitude and of this type [in the NBN]. I will be pushing very hard for similar activities in the US but quite frankly you guys are way ahead of us."

He added that industry in Australia should start taking advantage of the NBN as soon as any services are available, and not wait for the rollout to be substantially completed. "You have some tremendous opportunities to leverage that investment over the next several decades and I think the Internet Society here is in a very good position to give advice and in some cases to initiate action."

Cerf also highlighted the need for multilateral agreement on strong authentication for Internet users participating in eCommerce. " I would like to see legislation that leads to multilateral agreements on the meaning of digital signatures," Cerf said. "We have to have rock solid legal framework to deal with breach of contracts. This is a serious multilateral issue that needs to be addressed."