On 11/08/2012 10:39, Alessandro Vesely wrote: > I wish to thank Phillip and Eric for their illuminating comments. > > However, I'm still not clear on the role that great powers may play in > the standards development and deployment, compared to that of vested > interests. Traditionally, and still in some countries, the telecommunications monopolist *is* the government, so defending the monopoly is directly in the government's financial interest. In other countries, where there's still a de facto monopoly, that monopolist is very good at political lobbying. So in both those types of country, the vested interest drives the government position. Add that to the governments that want central control and/or monitoring of information, and you get a strong bloc of political support for standards and regulations that support monopoly, control, and eavesdropping. Brian