[1355] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Will ANS connect to CIX? Why is this a difficult question?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sadowsky@nyu.edu)
Tue Sep 17 16:41:31 1991
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1991 16:40 EST
From: sadowsky@nyu.edu
To: com-priv@psi.com (com-priv list)
Ittai Hirschman:
As you know from some limited private correspondence, I have some serious
concerns regarding ANS' intentions in the internetworking arena, and based
upon the substantial heat of the discussion in com-priv, I believe that my
concern is not isolated.
I think Randy Bush has hit upon a _very_ important point when he presses
you to respond whether or not you'll be joining CIX. Your decision on this
is a key to your intentions. Will ANS be satisfied to be a network
provider on a par, to some extent, with others, or will it try to control
the market and set the rules for the evolution of internetworking in these
initial stages of movement toward commercialization? If the latter, I
argue that it's an unethical use of whatever market power you have obtained
as a result of your (instantly conferred) management of NSFNET.
If ANS hedges on joining CIX, I will interpret its intentions as
essentially hostile to the growth of effective competition in a field in
which there are no significant public policy based arguments for any
monopoly position. I think (although I can't say for sure) that feelings
like this are behind other postings I've read in this group.
Would you respond to this point directly, please?
George Sadowsky Phone: (212) 998-3040
Academic Computing Facility Fax: (212) 995-4121
New York University Telex: 235128 NYU UR
251 Mercer Street Bitnet: sadowsky@nyuacf
New York, New York 10012-1185 Internet: sadowsky@nyu.edu
