Hans Werner - presumably frustrated about the quality of his internet service writes: Are you guys up to it, or would you need regulation do it for you? Y'know, life can be easier if your parents tell you what to do, if you cannot get your act together yourself. Less stress, too. Less flexibility as well, perhaps, but methinks we have to choose some optimization function here, and buy off on the cost. In the end, this is not a sandbox for having a good time. People today *depend* on their network connection, and that it works is important to them. You *have* to go beyond just thinking locally. Very relevant questions. Let me try to nudge the discussion into a slightly different direction. When people started talking to me earlier in the summer about internet business models, these issues were the number one argument. The chain of reasoning went something like: you can't have a mature internet business until you have guaranteed quality of service metrics. You can't have guaranteed quality of service metrics until you have settlements. It seems to me that Hans Werner's complaint above fits squarely into this mold of thought. If I am wrong I am sure he'll tell me. Could we talk a bit about where these conclusions may lead us? Settlements, as I understand them, might be traffic based or route based. If I use more of someone else's resources than he uses of mine, I owe him a payment. Perhaps the payment might be for gigabytes delivered or routes advertised. The payment process then would cascade from the largest down to the smallest providers as those lower in the food chain extracted money from those beneath them to pay the demands of those above them. The outcome of such a process would be significant. Traffic based settlemnts would add substantial accounting costs to doing business. Route charging I'd guess would add less. Again however would not the billing components of this play into the hands of the RBOCS and five largest IXCs who have the mainframes and software systems to handle it most easily? But if the big boys started it, how far would it or could it go before shattering the internet? I predict on the basis of what regional ISPs who have more dial up than leased line accounts tell me that they would disconnect from the big boys rather than accept the strangle hold of settlements. The result - viola - a fractured, balkanized internet. How are you going to guarantee the standards of service? PUC certification in each state? Just what the RBOCs would love. Everyone has to open a 7 by 24 NOC or you can't be in the business? Cisco 7000 routers become minimum gear? I know. Everyone has to meet standards set by the CIX in order to play. Seriously though - how are you going to do it? What will the rules be and how will they be made? Lets assume that this were done in the most benign possible way. The only way smaller isps could stay in business would be to pass the increased costs on to their customers. And then your friendly South dakota Internet service, would be like the nationals - $20 a month for 15 hours and $2 and hour for each additional hour. Not to mention the fact that the costs of entry would be catapulted so high as to exclude new start ups lacking sufficient outside financing. As Compu$erve remarked in July, the cost model of $20 a month for unlimited service is a suicidal one for this industry. Yeah undoubtedly if you have the overhead costs of an Hr Block or RBOC to satisfy. Let me frame the question starkly. To get the reliability that Hans Werner wants to what extent must we consolidate the industry and raise prices? Killing in the process what makes the internet a magnet of attraction for some millions of users? **OR** is there any alternative of letting a few build an inustrial strength network for those who demand it, an allowing a less costly more fault tolerant network to survive? If so how might this be done? Comments from policy makers for the big five would be welcome. ******************************************************************** Gordon Cook, Editor & Publisher Subscript.: Individ-ascii $85 The COOK Report on Internet Non Profit. $150 431 Greenway Ave, Ewing, NJ 08618 Small Corp & Gov't $200 (609) 882-2572 Corporate $350 Internet: cook@cookreport.com Corporate. Site Lic $650 Newly expanded COOK Report Web Pages http://pobox.com/cook/ ********************************************************************