On Sun, 26 Jan 1997, Dave Curado wrote:
I haven't heard anything about that at all... so either a) the ceo is mistaken b) I've missed some important annoucement recently either is possible. Has anyone else heard anything about this?
This has been mentioned/suggested multiple times in the past on the NANOG list and also in passing in talks at the last NANOG meeting in Ann Arbor. There is atleast one major player (I forget who, we didn't care to pay) that does offer a peering only service for those networks that haven't managed to negotiate peering with them. Peering is frequently an exercise in posturing and politics by the wooed peers (especially the larger ones). People from the larger networks frequently say things in public (for example at NANOG) that are the way they wish things were as opposed to how they are. Since your traffic gets to any non peer via transit it simply becomes a question of money and capacity planning whether you care to pay for any specific peering session. Extra commentary follows... I believe the strategic marketing reason to peer with a competing network is that it increases the value of your network relative to the rest of the marketplace (the networks other than this specific peer) more than the opportunity cost of increasing the value of this specific peer's network. If you view your network as a majority market share holder you don't have much reason to peer from a strategic marketing point of view. Of course another reason you peer with other networks is if you believe your mission is to provide the best connectivity and least number of hops possible vs. customer dollars spent, but this depends on what you think your customers want. Mike. +------------------- H U R R I C A N E - E L E C T R I C -------------------+ | Mike Leber Direct Internet Connections Voice 408 282 1540 | | Hurricane Electric Web Hosting & Co-location Fax 408 971 3340 | | mleber@he.net http://www.he.net | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+