Uh, excuse me? I have no right to count on complete Internet connectivity from my ISP? This has some far reaching implications. What consideration is being given to arguably the most impacted parties in this new peering (or not peering) policy? The business customers, selling services via the Internet. Consider, company "A" on Alternet is contracted to provide data on demand to support services running on company "B", who is on another ISP. Without warning or notice to its customers (which may be the most disturbing point) UUNET makes a policy decision to stop peering with the other ISP. Company "B" goes out of business. "B" sues "A" for breach of contract, "A" sues UUNET, etc. Should ISPs be allowed to set peering policy for Internet? Should they have the right to define what the Internet is? Which points out how the Internet really has become a common carrier/utility company concern. PacBell can't suddenly change your phone service because they decide to. There's public review and approval steps they have to follow first. And there's good reason for that. The public relies on the phone system for business transaction and private use. The system must be be maintained in a consistent manner to allow that to occur. I don't need to point out the similar common carrier roles ISPs and the Internet as a whole have assumed. The issue has brought to light the fact than players in the ISP game want to assume the role, and make profits based on, of providing common utility services, without assuming the responsibility and accountability structures other public service providers must assume. I believe this is the core issue at hand regarding UUNET's peering policy changes and needs to be address at that level. _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/ _/ _/ Charles R. Hoynowski, Site Admin _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Etak, Inc., 1430 O'Brien Drive, _/_/_/ _/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/ Menlo Park, CA 94025 _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Voice:415-617-4458 Fax:617-0161 _/_/_/_/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Email: charles@etak.com