on peering, transit, and why Vadim should be flogged... :) Vadim (i think) frist coined the term Tier-N for classifying ISPs. Nice marketing term. wrt peering, tranist, and the relative importance of communications channels... ) the PSTN is not ubiquitious ... it is NOT possible to dial and be connected to every known telephone number from every/any possible number. Goverments do block access to some other places they find objectionable. ) "the Internet" is and (nearly) always has been a collection of networks, the interconnection of which is bound by policies. those policies are there to restrict/interdict/block traffic of one form or another. (how many of you -want- BGP w/o the policy knobs?) ) if communications w/ someone or some entity is critical, it behoves me to ensure that such channels are available. that may entail me owning the ROW, the transmission media, and the CPE at each end. Or, for less critical channels, I might be able to aquire such services from suppliers. For even less critical communications, I might even presume that my suppliers and their various associates and fellow travelers in the IP pipe business will get my various bits to the random places that I try to send them to on a whim. And... that the other bits will get back to me. :) don't want to talk about content. :( --bill (who has enable, has negotiated peering and transit, and is dumbfounded at the length of this thread)