I do not think any of them would kill the hen laying golden eggs. The reality is that backbone ISPs are starting to turn out new customers. There's always a lot of noise from those who just don't get TANSTAAFL, though.

Sigh, there are customers who would love to buy better service. But when we ask various providers what we, as customers, can do to get better service out of those networks, we're told by those providers their networks don't have any problems. If the problem doesn't involve the service provider, why would giving them more money make things better? If we believe what the providers have been saying, our money would be better spent elsewhere to improve service. Whatever the problems with MERIT's methods, they showed there were quantitive differences between different providers. What those differences really mean, and why they exist is open to debate or for academic types, a subject of further research. There are always a lot of noise from those who just don't believe those who say 'trust us' our network has zero loss. I'm from Missouri, Show Me. -- Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO Affiliation given for identification not representation