Digital Gateway Seminar: Andrew Campling Presentation
Why Romania tops global internet speed-
1. How Romania reached 4th global
fastest internet speed?
Dan Barbulescu,
Founder Bucharest Equity Research Group
Romanian Scientific Diaspora and the Opportunities of Horizon 2020 International Symposium, June 15 – 16, 2015,
Romanian Embassy in Canberra, Australia
2. Cable networks started in socialism
● Public TV broadcasted 2 hours/day
● Ceausescu’s cult of personality and birthday,
eclipsed Australia Day celebrations
● Romanians built antennas to capture TV
signals from Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia,
Moldova, Ukraine
● Cable networks were made in unit
blocks that shared one antenna
3. Suburb LANs emerged in capitalism
● Cable TV expanded after 1989
revolution in Romania
● Local Area Networks used the TV
antennas build of coaxial cables
● Content sharing started in Romania
15 years before Napster
● Deregulation encouraged
entrepreneurship for Micro Internet
Service Providers (Micro-ISPs)
4. Micro ISPs kept price low and speeds higher
● Broadband internet available
since 2000, data traffic is
unmetered
● Most popular broadband services
are provided by Micro-ISPs with
50 to 3000 subscribers
● 1000 Mbit/s locally, 100 Mbit/s
metro and 2 Mbit/s International
● 1000 Mbit/s (€12.26/month)
6. First generation of global hackers
● Ramnicu Valcea town was branded
“Hackerville” by global media
● $1 bln/year losses reported by US
websites like amazon.com
● FBI & Romanian Police established
a cyber crime task force
● Over 500 cyber hackers were
prosecuted and convicted in last
15 years
7. First class of global cyber defence
● Bitdefender antivirus antispyware
software turnover is $ 0.5 bln
● 20 percent of Europol's cyber
defense experts are Romanian
police officers
● Romania was appointed by NATO
in charge of Ukraine's cyber
security and prevention cyber
warfare
8. Europe’s software development
powerhouse
● 1.5%, highest percentage of IT
workforce in Europe
● Tax exempt IT wages of $36000=4
times Romania annual avg.
● Deutsche Bank opened its banking
outsource center
● Oracle’s subsidiary is 4th in the
world and 2nd largest in Europe
● IT is 5% of GDP in 2014, $10bln
9.
10. Relevance for cross border science
● Video conferencing and telepresence capabilities
● Distributed computing research projects built Google
● Worldwide Computing Grid for projects like CERN, SKA, ELI-NP
● Australia’s Academic and Research Network partnership with
Research and Education Network New Zealand to provide access
to ultra high-speed international connectivity
● Horizon 2020 has $1 bln budget for Future Internet projects
● Open data access improves research capabilities
● Australia and New Zeeland rank 5th while Romania and Holland
rank 16th in Global Open Data Index for 2014
11. Thank You!
Internet research sources:
http://www.netindex.com/download/allcountries/
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-romanias-internet-is-so-much-faster-than-americas
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alisoncoleman/2014/03/27/europes-hidden-entrepreneurial-tech-hotbed-
romania-powers-up/
http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-land-where-skilled-it-workers-dont-pay-tax-yes-it-really-exists/
http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/241889-romania-defending-ukraines-cyberspace
http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-mix-of-poverty-and-piracy-that-turned-romania-into-europes-software-
development-powerhouse/
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/technology/article/Romania-turns-hacking-crisis-into-advantage-
6259994.php
http://www.romanianstartups.com/
Editor's Notes
Public TV had only 2 hours/day in last years of socialism
100% Ceausescu cult of personality (Romanians celebrated Australia Day after revolution)
Romanians started to build private antennas to capture TV signals from Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia
Cabling apartment blocks started before the revolution
Cable TV exploded after revolution
When the demand for high speed internet started to grow in Romania, Romtelecom (Romania’s AT&T) hadn’t yet launched. To meet the need, savvy entrepreneurs started to launch neighborhood networks: small, localized operations that only serve a customer base of a few blocks.
Suburb Local Area Networks used the antennas cables networks
Content sharing started in Romania 15 years before Napster
At first, these were just local area networks so neighbors could share music they’d downloaded or play games together.
Deregulation encouraged entrepreneurship for Micro Internet Service Providers
The local network operators started to make more money as more people joined the network, so they decided to use the LANs as a convenient way to sell inexpensive high-speed internet to a specific area, installing overhead internet cables.
Broadband internet available since 2000, data traffic is unmetered
most popular broadband services are provided by micro-ISPs with 50 to 3000
Speeds 1000 Mbit/s locally, 1-100 Mbit/s metro and 256-2048 kbit/s International
1000 Mbit/s (€12.26/month)
HOUSEHOLD DOWNLOAD INDEX
Based on millions of recent test results from Ookla Speedtest, this index compares and ranks consumer download speeds around the globe. The value is the rolling mean speed in Mbps over the past 30 days. Only tests taken within 300 miles of the server are eligible for inclusion in the index.
A CULTURE CREATED BY THE HACKERS OF THE 90S
With the 1989 revolution, the country became free after decades of communism, and it citizens suddenly gained access to foreign technology they had never dreamt of using before. A software market was bound to emerge.
However, legislation protecting intellectual property was scarce before 1996, and the country's software market developed to become one where anyone could buy, use, or even sell any computer program they could get their hands on.
Software piracy for educational purposes created a collective knowledge about coding, algorithms, and everything that derives from that. Some later chose to go for a paid version of the software, while others opted for open source
Bitdefender, won the Product of the Year 2015 award from leading independent testing organization AV-Comparatives. The prize adds to Bitdefender 2015’s four Editor’s Choice awards from PC MAG, as well as the highest overall score for protection from AV-TEST
In this picture taken on May 11, 2015, U.S. deputy Secretary for Commerce Bruce Andrews addresses a regional cyber security conference in Bucharest, Romania.
According to Forbes, Romania became Europe's Hidden Entrepreneurial Tech Hotbed and I quote “When EU restrictions were lifted in January this year media hype about a mass influx of Romanians to the UK was rife. The premise was that they were desperate for opportunities that didn’t exist back home. The influx never happened”
In this picture taken on May 2014 is half Romanian Safra Catz, Oracle president and CFO, opening a new office building for 2500 employees in Bucharest CBD up from 80 employees in 2006
