[1829] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Toward 1992 Resolution
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Martin Schoffstall)
Thu Jan 2 01:41:36 1992
In-Reply-To: <91Dec30.173622gmt.105508@MrBill.CAnet.CA>
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 92 01:40:49 -0400
To: "Dennis Ferguson" <dennis@MrBill.CAnet.CA>
Cc: wls@psi.com, com-priv@psi.com
From: "Martin Schoffstall" <schoff@mail.psi.net>
Reply-To: schoff@psi.com
Actually you need more data to do that kind of analysis, (ignoring the
issue of the "wink").
With the subsidization of the regional networks by the NSF in some sense
the concept of competing with an academic regional network is moot. For
academic sites in many areas of the US connections are given away for
free or close to it - who can compete with that. For this reason and
others (including a noble one or two) we leave them alone. We've gotten
dozens of RFP's from INDIVIDUAL universites looking for a connection all
the time - they are always non serious pro-forma exercises which we
nicely decline.
To date only ANS appears to have "stolen" academic sites (VirginaTech and
Purdue come to mind), I don't believe alternet has ever done this either.
Now the next step is commercial internetworking - one at a time - one of
two principal business plan objectives of PSI. I think it is ludicrous
for PSI to compete with these non-profits - I hope they have good
lawyers for the tax courts in the coming years - but I guess we do compete. Do
we cannibalize the regionals, possibly at the margins. We have over
1000 customers, almost all of them are completey new. The normal rule
of thumb is 10x effort to change a customers choice vs getting them before
they've chosen. i think this applies here too.
Marty
PS: the tax issues are very significant. I asked Al Weis months ago if
ANS payed taxes on the equipment in their network - specifically on the
pieces that were connecting those commercial sites, whether the pc's and
macs for the commercial salesdroids had sales tax paid on them etc.. I
was told that they "have the best lawyers in the world, and they have to
be so squekly clean that they can't be called into question".. ie i got
a non-answer. This is just a small facet.
--------
>DATE: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 17:36:17 -0000
>FROM: Dennis Ferguson <dennis@MrBill.CAnet.CA>
>
>wls@psi.com (William Schrader) writes:
>> I
>> know, now, that he was _not_ saying to me: 'I am going to help you
>> open up this market for all the FARNet members, so that we can all
>> build this industry together'.
>>
>> So: instead of building the marketplace by bringing new connections
>> into the internet, ANS is using their NSF sanctioned advantage and
>> signing existing customers of FARNET and CIX Association members.
>> Their recent spate of "clarifying" messages have only been attempts
>> to put more palatable spins on the same old unsavory plan.
>
>I shouldn't comment since I only have a view from afar, but I have the
>distinct impression that PSI didn't seem nearly so shy about attracting
>existing customers of FARNET members when ANS wasn't one of the operators
>also competing for their patronage.
>
>Not that it matters, since I personally don't see anything wrong with
>head-to-head competition and complaints about the lack of levelness of the
>playing field and the unsavoury business practices of the competition
>are always fun. I just sometimes get confused by the apparent periodic
>rearrangements of "us" and "them" :-).
>
>Dennis Ferguson
>
> From: sob@tmc.edu (Stan Barber)
> Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1991 19:20:15 CST
> Subject: Re: Only somewhat unkind remarks about K-12....
>
> On Apr 4, 7:47pm, "Martin Lee Schoffstall" wrote:
> } However, we're operating in Houston and Dallas today, and the commercial
> } organizations are coming on, so we're happy.
> }-- End of excerpt from "Martin Lee Schoffstall"
>
> Operating in Houston.... hmmm a site called houston_C.pop.psi.net is listed
> with an internet address but is unreachable. Doesn't sound very operational
> to me......:-)
>
> Subject: Re: Only somewhat unkind remarks about K-12....
> Date: Thu, 04 Apr 91 20:30:13 -0500
> From: "Martin Lee Schoffstall" <schoff@psi.com>
>
>
> Operating in Houston.... hmmm a site called houston_C.pop.psi.net is listed
> with an internet address but is unreachable. Doesn't sound very operational
> to me......:-)
>
> Its probably one of the unenabled v.35 interfaces for a yet to be
> completed installation of a soon-to-be-former commercial customer of yours ;-)
>
> Its hard for me to keep track of all the DNS records.
>
> Marty
