[10889] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: The FCC strikes the Internet (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Russell Nelson)
Sun Mar 13 21:48:38 1994
Date: Sun, 13 Mar 94 17:20 EST
From: nelson@crynwr.com (Russell Nelson)
To: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.85.9403131541.A1116-0100000@essential> (message from James Love on Sun, 13 Mar 1994 15:49:41 -0500 (EST))
Date: Sun, 13 Mar 1994 15:49:41 -0500 (EST)
From: James Love <love@Essential.ORG>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
On Sun, 13 Mar 1994, Russell Nelson wrote:
> Arrrrrgggghhhhh!!!! I pay my $25/month to PSI, and I get to send and
> receive as much email as I want. I have flat rate phone service, so I
> can stay on the modem all day for all it costs me.
>
> I REALLY don't know what your problem is, Jamie. If you want email to be
> "as free as the air", then it's going to end up as polluted as the air.
Well hold on a moment Russell. Flat rate pricing, which you have now,
isn't free.
You are correct--I was being unfair.
There are two problems with internet access that concern us. First,
while some cities have low cost flat rate access available, many cities
are not so lucky. Second, we are concerned that the current settlements
policies might change as the NSF funding disappears. Others are not
very concerned about this.
But as I understand it, the only reason/way (e.g.) PSI talks to (e.g.)
UUNET *now* is through the CIX. And the CIX specifically prohibits
settlements. So if the NSF goes away, the CIX is the only thing
holding the Internet together. So settlements would be very, very bad
for the Internet at large, at least in the short term. And, much
worse than the NSF simply closing down their network.
I think that's why people aren't concerned about settlements appearing from
nowhere.
-russ <nelson@crynwr.com> ftp.msen.com:pub/vendor/crynwr/crynwr.wav
Crynwr Software | Crynwr Software sells packet driver support | ask4 PGP key
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