At 8:04 PM 27/1/96, Hank Nussbacher wrote:

What this has to do with RIPE allocation policies is beyond me. Everyone in the European realm suffers from extremely high tariffs. So what?

Because tariff distort topologies. In the short term, if you drew a map that used tariffs as the metric of your topology, the Atlantic would hardly be larger than the Rhine. This in itself is at cross purpose with the local implementation of CIDR, i.e. allocation of addresses to European networks from a European block by the RIPE NCC. If you look at the medium term, the perspective is even more interesting. Deregulation will gradually take place in the next three years. It will most probably result in lower tariffs for some lines, but not all, and definitely not at the same time. Take the map which I mentioned above. Imagine it printed on a fin sheet of elastic rubber, not paper. The effect of deregulation is that for the next three years the rubber will be constantly deformed, shrinking here and inflating there, and you are very lucky if you can predict where and when. To believe that this would not have some influence on addressing and internetworking is at least shortsighted. Christian Huitema