14 Apr
2004
14 Apr
'04
5:18 a.m.
Not everyone wants to (or is able to) entrust their email to a a Tier 1 ISP; if nothing else, the Tier 1s would charge for the privilege.
A tier 1 provider in the SMTP mesh does not have to be the same thing as a tier 1 provider in the physical mesh. See the structure of the NNTP mesh over the years for examples. I fully expect to see specialized email peering providers arise who will have SMTP peering arrangements with the large email site like AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail etc. and who then arrange peering with large numbers of smaller sites who either cannot find SMTP peering locally or who want to be assured of alternate SMTP routes in the event their main peer cannot reach all destinations. Michael Dillon