(1) There will be a market for independent ISPs as long CLECs continue to let their customers enjoy poor service and unnecessary restrictions. Bandwidth is a "commodity" and scales appropriately; service is "service" and does not scale without a great deal of management commitment, resources, money, attention and abandonment of the cut-costs/low-bid mentality. (2) This discussion is more appropriate to the ISP-CLEC list. Wish I could be with you all in Seattle next week but work is piling up so . . . back to work/lurk mode . . . phred ------ mail forwarded, original message follows ------ To: nanog@nanog.org From: Mbazan@onelegal.com <Matt Bazan> Subject: FW: what will all you who work for private isp's be doing in a few years? Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 12:13:23 -0700 yep, bryan brings up a good point too. looks like the private dsl reseller ship will soon be taking on more water and floundering yet further. -----Original Message----- From: Brian Battle [mailto:brian@confluence.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 11:32 AM To: Matt Bazan Subject: RE: what will all you who work for private isp's be doing in a few years? You forgot to mention Verizon's Fios (fiber to the house) which will definitely put smaller dsl resellers out of business, unless Verizon gives them access to resell that as well. 15Mbs/2Mbs for $49.95 is going to make even the cable operators scramble to increase bandwidth to maintain customers. -----Original Message----- From: Matt Bazan [mailto:Mbazan@onelegal.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 2:09 PM To: nanog@nanog.org Subject: what will all you who work for private isp's be doing in a few years? why in the world would anyone want to purchase dsl from a private reseller when i can get 4mb down 384 up from comcast for $25? think you dsl resellers out there are doomed. in fact, just a matter of time before most of you isps are down the toilet. im reminded of the mom and pop grocery store phenomenon that has now been replaced by the kohls, a&p, whole foods etc. of course there will always be niche markets but this is less applicable for a pure commodity like bandwidth. yeah, i suppose you'll say something about value added services and such and you may have a point but i doubt that will keep the ship afloat for long.