Speculation about how the money flows is a worthwhile activity. Paul Wall wrote: On 11/25/09, Richard Bennett [1]<richard@bennett.com> wrote: It turns out you can say any damn thing you want about peering since nobody has any facts. Indeed you can. This is one of things where the people with the hard facts aren't talking due to NDA, regard for their pride, or both. In the absence of solid data, most journalists (and I use the term loosely) take the high road, writing on only what they know about and can back up with fact. It is unfortunate that you approach this differently, attempting to pass off Bill Norton's blog, itself very flawed and comprised of error upon error which he simply refuses to acknowledge or correct, as the new gospel. You write that "the shift of an enormous amount of Internet traffic from transit to paid peering is new, that's what the data in the Arbor Networks study shows". Nowhere in the Arbor study is there any analysis of where money is passing hands, or any settlement-based vs. settlement-free interconnection arrangement. The report is a scientific one based upon aggregated netflow/sflow data, which doesn't take layers 8 and above into account. Also suspiciously absent is any disclosure of employer affiliations and biases. You write that "[you're] opposed to the anti-discrimination rule that the FCC is considering". What you fail to mention is that you work for the ITIF, a Washington think-tank allegedly funded by big cable. Is it really any surprise that you want to preserve this revenue stream? Likewise, Norton neglects to mention that he works for NuMetra, a company going around to content and broadband operators trying to pitch a some black box which will enforce last-mile QoS and automatically pay the friendly local Internet monopoly/duopoly in "settlement" fees *on top* of your regular transit costs. Of course he wants Uncle Sam to back off; that's how his employer benefits. It is also important to consider Mr. Norton's role in Equinix, where he worked in MARKETING, far distanced from the establishment of actual peering agreements. The real co-founders were Jay Adelson and Al Avery. It is sad to see that Mr. Norton, once a valued member of the community, so blatantly favoring the green stuff over fact-checking and journalistic integrity. One can only hope Om Malik will carry out better due diligence in the future when hiring "industry experts" to write for him. Drive Slow, Paul Wall -- Richard Bennett Research Fellow Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Washington, DC References 1. mailto:richard@bennett.com