At 14:20 8/13/98 -0500, you wrote:
That is one thing I don't understand about the aversion to peering. We peer with anyone who will either pay the line costs or connect to us over Bell FR, where the costs are negligible. Granted, we are small potatoes in the ISP field, but to my way of thinking both parties benefit. There is a customer here communicating with a customer there. Both ISPs are getting money from their customer to get connectivity to the other ISP's customer. Dropping the peering connection degrades connectivity for both ISPs' customers.
On the macro, non-technical side of things...this move also degrades the very cooperative nature of the Internet (which is getting less cooperative by the day). It used to be "we're all one big family...c'mon in!" but now it's "you must not only pay your own way, but pay part of our way as well or you can't come in!". Pay per play, all the way. Wanna be on the Internet? Bring your Platinum card. The next step will be "you must pay a hefty price for every packet transitting our pipes", directing transitting (packets only going through specified routes) and strong-arm tactics on the smaller players to sign up with one specific network. Then you'll see regulation akin to what telcos have, with the concommitant expense. Sorry, Pandora...the box is open and Woe is on the loose. Wabbit season!..duck season!..wabbit season!..duck season!..SPAMMER SEASON! Dean Robb PC-EASY computer services (757) 495-EASY [3279]
There is a customer perception, dating from the earliest days of the Internet that when you connect to the Internet, you will be able to reach all sites that are up, everywhere. That this is still mostly true is a tribute to the hard work of a lot people on this list, and elsewhere. So far, the cases for which this is not true are small in both number and relative importance. If this perception breaks down, watch out. Theodore Vail was allowed to create the regulated monopoly AT&T in the early part of this century on the promise of Universal Service, which meant not only that everyone had a telephone, but that *all* telephones could call *all* other telephones - one big, happy, PSTN. The Internet presents this kind of universality today without the regulation, but don't doubt for a second that if the ISPs (of whatever size) begin destructive pissing matches of the form "I'm bigger than you, pay me or we disconnect" that the FCC will be pressured to regulate the ISPs in such a way to guarantee the universal connectivity aspect of the Internet. Your customers will demand it. Erik <fair@clock.org>
"Erik E. Fair" <fair@clock.org> writes:
The Internet presents this kind of universality today without the regulation, but don't doubt for a second that if the ISPs (of whatever size) begin destructive pissing matches of the form "I'm bigger than you, pay me or we disconnect" that the FCC will be pressured to regulate the ISPs in such a way to guarantee the universal connectivity aspect of the Internet.
It would be sad were it to go that way, but a universal connectivity system in the US would go a long way to help creating a scalable international peering/settlement system (which the FCC is not in a position to regulate.) Currently, it is depressing to watch all the US domestic peering haggling going on, and wonder how in the hell those of us paying for big pipes across big oceans are going to come up with reasonable and scalable cost models to allow those pipes to grow. That the Internet presents universality at the moment, from an international perspective, works only because the US (or rather, a few US major players) is still acting as a global NAP, and most outside of the US are so far willing to pay the full cost of connectivity to the US. I suspect a day is comming where instead of BBN, it will be someone like NTT (the big Japanese telco) saying "pay for connecting to us, or we will cut off your access to Japanese porn from our customer sites." Or, they may say to US based advertizers, "Pay us for what you use on this pipe across the Pacific, or we will block your access to Japanese customers." -jem John Milburn jem@bora.net Director - BoraNet jem@xpat.com EC Internet Division Tel +82 2-220-7035 Dacom Corporation, Seoul, Korea Fax +82 2-220-0751
participants (3)
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Dean Robb -
Erik E. Fair -
jem＠xpat.com