Tier 1s are just as succeptible to outages and peering issues as anyone else. Not to say they're any less, I work for one after all, but one shouldn't assume they're always the best for every application. As an example, Hurricane is decidedly not a Tier 1, but have one of the best peered networks out there.
Well peered is a huge plus but that's hard to measure. Cogent, peers with Google in just a few spots so if you want to get to 8.8.8.8 from Dallas you're going to go via Atlanta even though they could peer right in TX. That's a bummer if you've hardcoded Google DNS into anything. But how would you know that unless you do a lot of testing with looking glasses?
The choice also depends on what you're doing with the bandwidth:
If you're a content provider, for example, you may want to buy transit from AT&T, Comcast, or Charter, not because they're the best, but because they have better access to the eyeballs. Voice guys may want a "performance optimized" blendwidth for lower latency. Etc.
-M
Hello there,
I have started writing a blog which I hope it would help buy transit services from providers by doing various due diligences(technical) i wanted to reach out and ask nanog community’s thoughts on this.
What are some of your checklist items ? Price? Their directly peered networks? If they are tier 2,3 who they use as tier 1-2? Are the onnet? I am sure list goes on and on on...
Thanks a lot for your help. I plan to write the blog this month and publish.
Mehmet
--
Mehmet
+1-424-298-1903