[13753] in North American Network Operators' Group
WorldCom/MCI Merger - Backbone Monopoly?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (randy@its.bldrdoc.gov)
Mon Nov 17 11:46:08 1997
From: randy@its.bldrdoc.gov
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 97 09:01:54 -0700
To: nanog@merit.edu
NANOG Participants -
Does the NANOG community have opinions regarding whether the
WorldCom/MCI merger will result in what effectively could be
considered a "monopoly" of the Internet's backbone? Say, for
argument, that WorldCom/MCI merger will result in its control of
60% of the Internet's backbone traffic (measured, perhaps, as a
percentage of IP packets taken from all ingress "access ISPs"
and provided to all egress "access ISPs"). Is there real
concern that this type of backbone "control" will negatively
affect ISPs in the short-, medium-, or long-term? Does, for
example, Qwest's planned deployment of a fiber infrastructure
to become the "World's Biggest Internet Backbone" (WebWeek,
Vol. 3, Issue 37, Nov. 10, 1997, p. 1) make such fears unfounded?
Thanks in advance for any public or private responses on
this inquiry.
- Randy Bloomfield (303) 497-5489, randy@its.bldrdoc.gov
(Note: inquiry supports a technical research initiative of the
Instiute for Telecommunication Sciences (Boulder, CO), a part of
the U.S. Department of Commerce)
