[11056] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: What is an "Internet reseller"?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dick St.Peters)
Sat Mar 19 01:12:35 1994
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 94 19:54:07 EST
From: stpeters@swan-song.crd.ge.com (Dick St.Peters)
To: fair@apple.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Reply-To: <stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com>
>From: "Erik E. Fair" (Your Friendly Postmaster) <fair@apple.com>
>Why do some of you persist in believing that handing out IP addresses
>makes it qualitatively different? Bandwidth is bandwidth.
>
>This whole mess comes about because NSP's will not engineer their
>networks to carry the total aggregate inputs - too expensive. So, they
>guess at an average usage per customer, and then frantically restrict
>anything that violates that assumption, with lots of handwaving.
Actually, Erik, they can and do monitor usage. A number of NSPs offer
"low volume" T1 lines. AlterNet, for example, offers
----
o T1-LV (Low Volume)
Targeted towards subscribers who need the high speed of T1,
but not the bandwidth. A full T1 is available for your use,
but your average use is under 128 kbps. We monitor line use and
advise you if you approach the 128k limit.
----
OARnet has a more complex definition of "low volume":
----
The average number of bytes in plus out of a client site during the
15-minute period of highest traffic, 9:00 am - 6:00 pm, Monday-Friday,
does not exceed 20 percent of the capacity of a T1 circuit for more
than three days in any three consecutive months, nor does it exceed 20
percent for more than three consecutive days in any six-month period.
----
That there are not settlements is a fiction. The whole US Internet
runs on coarse-grain settlements between providers and their customers,
using bandwidth as a coarse indicator of traffic, and where the
relation between bandwidth and traffic breaks down, AlterNet and OARnet
are willing to use a finer grain.
It is only when dealing with each other that NSPs operate on a "no
settlements of any kind" basis. This 1) lets the big providers make
the small ones subsidize them, 2) creates a barrier to entry, and 3)
forces the sorts of artificial distinctions that distort the truth you
stated: bandwidth is bandwidth.
--
Dick St.Peters, Gatekeeper, The Pearly Gateway; currently at:
GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com
