[1363] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Will ANS connect to CIX? Why is this a difficult question?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow)
Wed Sep 18 11:03:20 1991
To: Stephen Wolff <steve@ncri.cise.nsf.gov>
Cc: sadowsky@nyu.edu, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of Wed, 18 Sep 91 08:20:08 -0400.
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 08:03:35 MST
From: the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow <geoff@fernwood.mpk.ca.us>
Hi Steve,
What ANS has yet to learn about the networking business is you
can't make money being the guy in the middle unless you bring something
of substantial value to the table and your fun to deal with.
Is the network community going to ante up to pay for access to what
they perceive is an overbuilt and experimental (some would say flaky) T-3
backbone? Sure a T-3 backbone is a "nice thing to have", but At What Cost?
So far, ANS' table manners and dinner conversation have been pretty
glib. The party seems to be devolving into a rather boisterous affair.
Are fisticuffs to be brandished soon? Will Marty and Al meet in the OK
corral and shoot it out or will we end up having an Internet Woodstock?
The Witching Hour we're obviously all waiting for is when the
backbone ticket to ride expires come midnight Sep '92. It will be very
telling with whom the retailers (i.e. the mid- levels) place their
confidence, who are really princes and who are really toads.
The Jedi Knight's of networking (Alternet/CERFNet/InfoNet/PSI),
seem to be offering the only reasonable confidence at this time. The ANS
Darth Vader heavy breathing and packet peeking storm troopers are not
being received very well it seems.
Geoff
