[198] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
WilTel or PSI?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kent England)
Wed Feb 27 10:18:14 1991
From: kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent England)
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 91 09:55:58 -0500
To: com-priv@psi.com, schoff@psi.com, sob@tmc.edu
> From: sob@tmc.edu (Stan Barber)
>
> Will the commercial internets of the future be operated by companies like PSI
> or by companies like WilTel?
>
> Comments, please.
>
I would point out that provision of interLATA services and MAN
services such as SMDS, Frame Relay, ISDN, 802.6, FDDI, etc does not of
itself provide internet services (ie, internet protocol support).
For the Internet, it may be that at first there will develop a
two-level hierarchy where interLATA/MAN service providers provide new
network services to internet service providers who sell direct to end
user institutions and individuals.
The telcos will also try to sell these new network services to
private internet builders (ie, corporate network managers and vertical
market groups like realtor associations). They see this as the market
worth pursuing with FR/SMDS/ISDN. The academic internet doesn't even
show up as a blip on their charts compared to what they already
perceive as the installed base of corporate PC networks and potential
for specialized commercial affinity groups, just waiting to be plugged
together. And those markets may not require internet services.
--Kent
