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

As the Internet grows, particularly in Europe, the EU will probably step in and say, "No peering. Fine. Fill out this rail car load of documents in quadruplet, send them to Brussels, and wait five years for us to decide if we want to let you do business in Europe. Until we do, we won't let your telephone company switch on their voice and data networks that they just built, and we will suspend all their relationships with European PSTNs as well. And, oh yes, once you finally come around, your networks can continue to peer with those in Europe, as long as you pay us a 5 zillion Euro advance (certified check, please)." I am reluctant to predict anything, even what I'm going to have for dinner in the next hour. But I'll go out on a limb to say that the EU will end up causing Microsoft much more trouble than the Justice Department ever will. And maybe then it will become apparent what impact they will have on attempted domination or restriction of the Internet by any large US-based provider, since what they forced UUNet to do to with MCINet seems to have been so quickly forgotten. (Speaking for myself, not for my employer) Bill Goldstein Senior Internet Specialist AT&T wgoldstein@att.com TEL:(412)642-7288 ---------- From: pceasy Sent: Friday, August 14, 1998 3:45 PM To: nanog Cc: pceasy Subject: Re: BBN Peering issues At 14:20 8/13/98 -0500, you wrote: 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] <<File: Re_ BBN Peering issues.TXT>>