As the Internet grows, particularly in Europe, the EU will probably step
in and say, "No peering. Fine. Fill out this rail car load of
documents in quadruplet, send them to Brussels, and wait five years for
us to decide if we want to let you do business in Europe. Until we do,
we won't let your telephone company switch on their voice and data
networks that they just built, and we will suspend all their
relationships with European PSTNs as well. And, oh yes, once you
finally come around, your networks can continue to peer with those in
Europe, as long as you pay us a 5 zillion Euro advance (certified check,
please)."
I am reluctant to predict anything, even what I'm going to have for
dinner in the next hour. But I'll go out on a limb to say that the EU
will end up causing Microsoft much more trouble than the Justice
Department ever will. And maybe then it will become apparent what
impact they will have on attempted domination or restriction of the
Internet by any large US-based provider, since what they forced UUNet to
do to with MCINet seems to have been so quickly forgotten.
(Speaking for myself, not for my employer)
Bill Goldstein
Senior Internet Specialist
AT&T
wgoldstein(a)att.com
TEL:(412)642-7288
----------
From: pceasy
Sent: Friday, August 14, 1998 3:45 PM
To: nanog
Cc: pceasy
Subject: Re: BBN Peering issues
At 14:20 8/13/98 -0500, you wrote:
>That is one thing I don't understand about the aversion to peering.
We
>peer with anyone who will either pay the line costs or connect to us
over
>Bell FR, where the costs are negligible. Granted, we are small
potatoes in
>the ISP field, but to my way of thinking both parties benefit.
There is
>a customer here communicating with a customer there. Both ISPs are
getting
>money from their customer to get connectivity to the other ISP's
customer.
>Dropping the peering connection degrades connectivity for both ISPs'
>customers.
On the macro, non-technical side of things...this move also degrades
the
very cooperative nature of the Internet (which is getting less
cooperative
by the day).
It used to be "we're all one big family...c'mon in!" but now it's
"you must
not only pay your own way, but pay part of our way as well or you
can't
come in!". Pay per play, all the way. Wanna be on the Internet?
Bring
your Platinum card.
The next step will be "you must pay a hefty price for every packet
transitting our pipes", directing transitting (packets only going
through
specified routes) and strong-arm tactics on the smaller players to
sign up
with one specific network. Then you'll see regulation akin to what
telcos
have, with the concommitant expense.
Sorry, Pandora...the box is open and Woe is on the loose.
Wabbit season!..duck season!..wabbit season!..duck season!..SPAMMER
SEASON!
Dean Robb
PC-EASY computer services
(757) 495-EASY [3279]
<<File: Re_ BBN Peering issues.TXT>>
