[1353] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Questions: ANS Plan for Commercial Services
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James B. Van Bokkelen)
Tue Sep 17 09:32:01 1991
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 09:32:00 -0400
To: Ittai Hershman <ittai@shemesh.ans.net>
From: jbvb@ftp.com (James B. Van Bokkelen)
Reply-To: jbvb@ftp.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com (com-priv list)
The note of mine to which no one but Marty responded, was the note
outlining ANS's technical and strategic concerns regarding the CIX. I
sent that because I thought that some of you who are so vociferous in
saying we should inter-connect, may have some constructive ideas which
would make it happen....
A pricing policy that addresses the publicly-stated issue of guaranteeing
some sort of cross-subsidy from commercial traffic that uses the backbone
to educational uses is: $X[Kbits] + $Y[Kbits] * COMBits_percentage for any
connection at a given Kbits, whether it is a single organization, or a
regional, or CIX. Then set the $X vector to something that pleases the NSF,
and work out the $Y vector so your for-profit subsidiary makes a reasonable
ROI, but people don't bypass you.
This resolves the current technical issue, because ANS can generally be the
default route. This addresses the NSF's wish for a cross-subsidy. As a
taxpayer and net user, I'm not convinced that ANS's own strategies should
matter in this. If the T3 NSFNet had been put out to bid, and all of this
debate had taken place beforehand, the basics of the policy would have been
in the RFP. It wasn't, though...
James B. VanBokkelen 26 Princess St., Wakefield, MA 01880
FTP Software Inc. voice: (617) 246-0900 fax: (617) 246-0901
