[1703] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: natural monopolies
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean Donelan)
Thu Dec 12 01:23:57 1991
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1991 0:22:04 CST
From: SEAN@SDG.DRA.COM (Sean Donelan)
To: com-priv@psi.com
X-Vmsmail-To: SMTP%"com-priv@psi.com"
>As I understand it, there are no "natural monopolies" in many markets because
>a site can choose between their regional (and in some cases multiple regionals),
>PSI, Alternet and ANS.
If you go with PSI or Alternet you have to pay full freight. But if
you go with ANS, NSF picks up a healthy chunk of the costs. At the last
MIDNET meeting I attended the fact that NSF had already paid to bring the
ANS connection to MIDNET made choosing ANS more attractive. The alternative
meant paying (at a minimum) for a cross-country circuit to a ?IXs. Signing
an agreement with ANS was essentially "free" for MIDNET.
So you are correct that there are no "natural monopolies," but an academic
site is faced with this choice:
ANS/NSF connection: $0
Any other carrier: $$$$
What do you think the market survivability of the "other carriers" is?
--
Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO
Domain: sean@sdg.dra.com, Voice: (Work) +1 314-432-1100
