The growth of the railroads in the United States is also a good story to study. There are many parallels with the Internet story. Another story to study is the telephone industry... In the "old days", telephone systems were based on a model where the central core switching system was very expensive and the telephones were cheap. Centralized authorities made some sense, partly because the equipment capitalization was enormous. Common control was easier and could be performed by a few expensive systems. With the Internet, the capitalization is largely incremental. The core "switching system" is low-cost compared to telephone systems. Unlike low-cost telephones, PCs and servers are placed on the "edges" of the system and help to contribute to the common control. This incremental capitalization allows people to start small and to grow at their own pace. Also, companies can select prime urban markets and bypass rural areas. This is similar to what happened with railroads. As companies grow (like railroads) they start to encounter other growing companies and they best serve their customers by coordinating routes that allow packets (passengers) to transfer from one place to another with ease. It does not do a customer any good to be stranded in Peoria with no route to Des Moines. The Internet is only one component of the rapidly evolving story of a decentralized telecommunications system. The Internet would not be here if UNIX had not been set free, if AT&T had not been split, and if PC technology had not been allowed to evolve without centralized controls. Unfortunately, the lack of centralized control allows the Internet to evolve but also discourages coordination. Eventually, customers (passengers) will be the ones that get to decide which ISPs (trains) they ride. ISPs that work together to provide customers with the best service will survive. Those that do not will end up as carnival rides without connections to anything. Jim Fleming Naperville, IL ---------- From: Kevin Oberman[SMTP:oberman@nersc.gov] Sent: Friday, March 15, 1996 10:08 AM To: perry@piermont.com Cc: Barry Shein; 'NANOG List' Subject: Re: Allocation of IP Addresses

Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 00:40:24 -0500 From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>

I'm arguing that they haven't ever really existed, except with government intervention to create them.

Guess this you could claim "government intervention" for most anything, but I suggest you read up on Carnagie Steel, Standard Oil, and a few others at the turn of the century. And, if you want to claim that these were local, go out and buy a diamond. While there are a few exceptions, DuBeers controlled the world's diamond market totally until the past decade and still could easily destroy the worlds diamond market in a day. Yes, monopolies have and continue to exist. (A monopoly on IPv4 address space is very improbable and would certainly be short-lived, though!) R. Kevin Oberman Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) National Energy Research Supercomputer Center (NERSC) EMAIL: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 422-6955