[1185] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Wanted: a Primer on Settlements!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Peter Roll)
Tue Aug 13 19:48:12 1991
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 91 18:17:40 CDT
To: tmn!cook@uunet.uu.net, com-priv@psi.com
From: proll@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Peter Roll)
Cc: kjohnson@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
GORDON COOK:
Ref. com.priv posting of 10-AUG-91
The concept of separations and settlements is derived from the past
50-80 yrs of telephony. I'm no expert on it, either, though I learned
a little about it about 10 yrs ago as a member of the Telecomm Committee
of the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities; I was told at that time
that separations and settlements between telephone carriers were so
complex that only about 10 people in the country understood them.
Your description of how settlements would apply to Internet traffic
conforms poretty much to my understanding, but I'd like some of
those who have advanced this complex concept for the Internet to verify
or refute this conclusion.
However, I think your conclusion that settlements would
"....not reflect a policy of beginning to charge for network use by
the amount of data sent..." is incorrect. Settlements require
measurement of differential amounts of data sent between
networks. The financial settlements between networks based on this
differential require somebody to pay based on traffic. The networks
could absorb these costs and not pass them on as measured use charges,
but they are traffic-based and ultimately get paid by the users. Again,
I'd like some comments from those who have thought through the concept
of settlements as applied to the Internet.
PETER ROLL
NORTWESTERN UNIVERSITY
