[11092] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: ANS and the CIX - have they really connected?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (George Herbert)
Mon Mar 21 22:08:44 1994
To: stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com
Cc: karl@mcs.com, gwh@crl.com, matthew@echo.com, com-priv@psi.com,
cook@path.net, fair@apple.com, washburn@cix.org, gwh@crl.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 19 Mar 1994 17:10:40 EST."
<9403192210.AA02583@swan-song.>
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 19:17:45 -0800
From: George Herbert <gwh@crl.com>
>While I agree with this (more or less, "cartel" is a rather too strong
>language for my taste - the problems seem more like side effects than
>evil intent by design),
I would like to make it clear I wasn't implying evil intent.
I _do_ agree that CIX is a good thing and support its existence
wholeheartedly. But it's not addressing part of the commercial
network provider industry, and there's going to be friction until
that issue is resolved.
>my perspective differs from Matthew's:
> - I do not want to be a provider
> - I do want to be a customer
> - The price of becoming a customer is high here
> - I'd like to lower the cost for myself and some others by sharing
> a line with them
> - The CIX says if I do this I'm a reseller
> - The CIX fee would make our costs go up, not down
I'm not going to presume to speak for Matthew, but I know him and
was communicating with him during the period of time that he started
to go into business, and I think it's accurate that he went down that
list and found that he had no choice but to become a provider to
do what he wanted to do, as difficult as that was. He can of course
correct this statement if I am misrepresenting him.
For providers his size the final item is of critical importance.
There are some providers for whom CIX fee will raise total costs
not lower them. I very strongly suspect that those providers
would love to be CIX members if it was economical (hint hint)
for them to do so. The CIX agreements weren't written into stone
or the IP protocols; in an ideal world CIX can work with these
people and come to a mutually satisfactory way of getting
everyone together legitimately.
-george william herbert
Speaking only for myself
