Quoth Curtis Maurand:
A rose by any other name... The fact is, and history shows us, that when cartels form, things get bad for the consumer. Oil, Electricity, telecomm. However, The placement of the NAP's is disconcerting, because the process for choosing them was closed. Does it make sense for all of my traffic going to maine.rr.com from lamere.net (both >in Maine and in the same communities) to exchange traffic at MAE east 650 miles away?
Depends on what you mean by "Cartel," doesn't it? Would you describe a shopping mall as a cartel? In fact, the locations of shopping malls are generally very influenced by local population demographics and geography. So too any new exchange points. Obviously Nordstroms, Sears, Hechts, etc. have a much bigger impact on the location of shopping malls than the peace frogs store does. Thus, the few "really big ISPs" are going to be the ones who determine where they want services to be provided, and by virtue of their larger $$, will have much more weight than the small ISPs. This isn't surprising - any more than it should surprise you that McDonalds has a bigger impact on Cattle producers than your small regional chain does. Regarding where your traffic goes, if you're concerned about your traffic to maine.rr.com, you should get a circuit with them (either peer or customer). If you have done neither of these things, it certainly is not the fault of larger ISPs.
There won't be if the Tier-1's all form a "consotium." > They will collude on network build out and stop competing with each other. If you think that's not true, think again.
Well, I wouldn't theoretically rule out collusion, but it IS illegal - so therefore, the big ISPs do have a pretty strong incentive to avoid the appearence of collusion, and most of the "really big ISPs" have services which are diverse enough to mean that they are still competing for many of the same customers... All this having been said, while I don't have a problem with the idea of there being a smaller number of "mega-colos," I'd be surprised if the "really big ISPs" are in the financial position right now to look at spending a lot of money on (of all things) peering [ie. something which does not generate revenue]. -David Barak "Quis custodes ipsos custodiet?" - Juvenal __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/