It needs to be as reliable as the services that depend on it. E.g. if bank A is using the Internet exclusively without leased line back up to run its ATMs, or to interface with its customers, then it needs to be VERY reliable. If it's just my kid checking his email on AOL, probably not that reliable. As more and more critical services/infrastructure moves to the IP/MPLS, the expectations in terms of reliability go up every year. The real questions are: * How much are the customer's willing to pay for it? * What kind of reporting/management infrastructure we have to enforce/monitor the reliability commitment in the SLA? The discussion today about FR/ATM running over an MPLS core was very interesting since bank A may in fact think they have a back up FR circuit but they may not know that their FR circuit is in fact running over the same IP/MPLS core. Surprise, surprise :-) Bora ps. I am located about 100 miles south of SF and I was very happy that my cable modem service was up all day :-)