[745] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Let 100 Backbones Bloom & Commercial Use
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean Donelan)
Tue May 28 20:10:09 1991
Date: Tue, 28 May 1991 12:22:17 CDT
From: SEAN@dranet.dra.com (Sean Donelan)
To: com-priv@uu.psi.com
X-Vmsmail-To: SMTP%"com-priv@uu.psi.com"
Restricted money buying services from an unrestricted provider looks almost
like what is down at the lower layers. (Leased lines from AT&T, MCI, etc.
or X.25 from TYMNET, SPRINTNET, etc). NYSERNET does almost the same thing
by buying IP transport from PSI. The key will be at what level the "NSF
dollars" are spent. Too far up (eg. backbones) and everything is overshadowed
by the restrictions. Too far down (eg. individuals) and the leverage is lost
by the diffusion of the decision making. Maybe several types of awards, some
to needy schools, others to regional networks. Maybe even a equivalent of a
Small Business Administration loan to handle other inequities.
>From the commercial side, the important thing is it allows shared use of parts
of the network. The unrestricted provider could accept either kind of money,
and not have to worry about the actual traffic content.
The problem I see is how to prevent network fragmentation. I'm more concerned
about the "restricted" networks closing themselves off than the commercial IP
networks. In this regard, I want to have my cake and eat it too. NSF and
friends have done a great job in extending the Internet through all kinds of
interconnections worldwide. I believe that the that the commercial folks
should have the right to commit corporate hari-kari and refuse to talk to
anyone. But the funded folk should be expected to be somewhat open if they
accept the money. Not to pick on anyone, but if MIT and Cal-tech decided
they would ONLY talk to each other, they should do it on their own dime.
I'm also not sure to do about the case of one provider already have connections
to all the mid-level networks because of previous subsidies competing against
another provider that doesn't.
--
Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO 63132-1806
Domain: sean@dranet.dra.com, Voice: (Work) +1 314-432-1100
