"Erik E. Fair" <fair@clock.org> writes:
The Internet presents this kind of universality today without the regulation, but don't doubt for a second that if the ISPs (of whatever size) begin destructive pissing matches of the form "I'm bigger than you, pay me or we disconnect" that the FCC will be pressured to regulate the ISPs in such a way to guarantee the universal connectivity aspect of the Internet.
It would be sad were it to go that way, but a universal connectivity system in the US would go a long way to help creating a scalable international peering/settlement system (which the FCC is not in a position to regulate.) Currently, it is depressing to watch all the US domestic peering haggling going on, and wonder how in the hell those of us paying for big pipes across big oceans are going to come up with reasonable and scalable cost models to allow those pipes to grow. That the Internet presents universality at the moment, from an international perspective, works only because the US (or rather, a few US major players) is still acting as a global NAP, and most outside of the US are so far willing to pay the full cost of connectivity to the US. I suspect a day is comming where instead of BBN, it will be someone like NTT (the big Japanese telco) saying "pay for connecting to us, or we will cut off your access to Japanese porn from our customer sites." Or, they may say to US based advertizers, "Pay us for what you use on this pipe across the Pacific, or we will block your access to Japanese customers." -jem John Milburn jem@bora.net Director - BoraNet jem@xpat.com EC Internet Division Tel +82 2-220-7035 Dacom Corporation, Seoul, Korea Fax +82 2-220-0751