[491] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: CIX
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alex McKenzie)
Fri Mar 29 15:11:12 1991
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 91 14:27:30 EST
From: Alex McKenzie <mckenzie@BBN.COM>
To: Stephen Wolff <steve@cise.nsf.gov>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
I wrote:
> There is at least one regional, NEARnet, which is not subsidized...
and Steve Wolff replied:
>Sorry. Marty's right: NEARnet pays nothing for the use of the fastest,
>highest capacity, most reliable transcontinental datagram transit net in the
>world: the NSFNET Backbone (plug). For that matter, nor do you get charged
>for the delivery service of whatever mid-level net your correspondents'
>campuses subscribe to, after the packets drop off the Backbone (NSF's or
>anyone else's). And the destination campus doesn't send you a bill, either.
Well, to me that's an unusual concept of being "subsidized". Consider
this - DisneyWorld has a large campus in Florida, with many buildings
interconnected by private roads within the campus. Those roads
interconnect with Florida highways, the US Interstate highway system,
and eventually the roads of the other (contiguous 48) states. Yet most
people would not allege that DisneyWorld is being subsidized by the US
government or any state government on the basis of this interconnection.
NEARnet, per se, doesn't use the NSFNET Backbone in any case. NEARnet
might help a researcher at the University of New Hampshire get her
packets onto the NSFNET backbone, but I see NSFNET's transport of those
packets as a subsidy to the researcher, not a subsidy to NEARnet.
Maybe I'm being too picky, but I think a regional which receives direct
government cash to help it keep running is subsidized and a regional
which gets all its operating cash from its members (regardless of where
they got the cash) is not subsidized. That's what I mean when I say
NEARnet is not subsidized.
I do agree that the Internet community is interdependent; NEARnet would
be diminished in utility if the NSFNET Backbone disappeared at noon
tomorrow and the NSFNET Backbone would be diminished in utility if
NEARnet disappeared at noon tomorrow. But "interdependence" and
"subsidy" are different words, and describe different concepts. Sorry,
Marty's wrong.
Regards,
Alex McKenzie
