---- New Service Models Coming - Or, All About Bypass --- In my opinion, the ION announcement by Sprint is only the tip of the iceberg. North American network operators may also want to look at the following press release from Lucent and note that MCI is mentioned as the company testing the new products. http://www.lucent.com/press/0598/980527.nsa.html There is a certain irony that AT&T is not part of these activities...yet... The Internet has captured the imagination of a wide range of people. The Internet has been constructed around the edges of the existing telecommunications infrastructure. Many people have leveraged small investments into large empires and are now resting on their winnings. While they are resting and as the Internet becomes as insular as the old telecommunication cliques, others are busy building new structures around the edges of the existing IPv4 infrastructure. The following is just one example. Some of the ideas put forth in the Sprint annoucements confirm they have been thinking beyond the current legacy Internet. Other large companies are clearly looking down the road and as you can see above Lucent is ready with serious products for serious companies. @@@@ http://www.aiag.org/anx/pilotend.html AIAG PUBLISHES ANX? RELEASE 1 DOCUMENT FOR ISPs; DEFINES CERTIFICATION PROCESS & REQUIREMENTS FOR ANX? SERVICE ... ISP Certification Process Opens Beginning Thursday, May 21, ISPs may apply for certification of their network environment to meet the business quality internet service specified by ANX Release 1. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Some people feel that these new service models signal the end of the good old days of the Internet. This reminds me of people claiming that early computer store chains signalled the end of people experimenting with PCs. This was not the case, what happened was that the rest of the industry (boring PC usage) grew and it overshadowed the people building Altairs, IMSAIs, and Cromemco systems. It also helped to bring the price of floppy drives down to $18 from the $1,800 we paid for the some of the early drives. In my opinion, these new service models signal the beginning of an exciting time of expansion for the Internet and telecommunications in general. This growth will eventually bypass the legacy IPv4 Internet as we know it. People will have a choice whether to remain with the old-school legacy systems which they can operate as transport networks as long as someone is willing to pay to have some bits hauled, or people can switch and work on the new service models that are going to rapidly grow around the edges. There is a need for both types of people. Hopefully, people will be free to pursue either path. While it is clear that most of the people interested in NANOG fall into the legacy camp, I have a feeling that eventually some people will step out and try some new horizons. When you do, you might be surprised at how much is going on at the leading edge of those horizons... Jim Fleming Unir Corporation - http://www.Unir.net IS Coordinator for the AM Radio Station Registry - http://www.DOT.AM