On Wed, 12 Aug 1998, Adam Rothschild wrote:
If anyone would like to communicate privately about the BBN Peering issues, please drop me an email, or call.
I would like to communicate openly and publicly about this.
What I would like more than anything right now is some official word from high-up's at BBN regarding what this policy entails exactly, and what their rationale is behind it.
You know what is behind it, you mentioned it two paragraphs below, capitalism. BBN can make more money this way. The first thing they teach you in Business 100 is that the purpose of a business is to make a profit. BBN can make more profits by not peering with every ISP who wants to peer with them.
That is, a public explanation other than the all-too-obvious "We're greedy. Welcome to the business world. We're not going to change our minds, so shut the fuck up and buy some transit, you dumb suckers."
Well they may give some lame technical reason like our routers were overloaded or something, but I doubt it.
Though I must admit that what I've heard may be biased, as I've heard from the opressees moreso than the opressors, this sounds like an issue driven by sheer stupidity and capitalism on BBN's behalf. Certainly does not seem to be in their best interest, or the best interest of the Internet as a whole. Of course, I could be mistaken, which is why I'd like some word from BBN.
Well basically you need to think of it like this. If the providers that are getting cut were actually "peers" of BBN, then BBN would feal the pain, in fact they are not "peers". BBN can cut them off their network and will not feal a thing. BBN customers will still be able to reach the cut ISPs from their transit providers. If the providers were "peer" then when BBN tried to cut them they both would feal the pain and BBN would most likley turn it back up in a hour or so.
Rather than limit this issue to within the confines of private communication, I would like to see it carried out as a very vocal and lively public one. That way, the general public will be able to make an educated decision regarding whether or not to purchase transit from BBN/GTE, in light of this.
Well, in the past this stuff was resolved under NDAs. If you don't see a lot of ISPs talking then most likely BBN just had them sign a NDA and worked something out.
Regards, Adam
<> Nathan Stratton Telecom & ISP Consulting www.robotics.net nathan@robotics.net -- "No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength." - Psalm 33:16