[8329] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Follow-up ON DIGEX, ANS & CIX
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (matthew kaufman)
Sun Nov 14 05:38:25 1993
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 02:35:11 PST
From: matthew@klinzhai.echo.com (matthew kaufman)
To: nelson@crynwr.com, raisch@internet.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
>"Russell Nelson" <nelson@crynwr.com>
> ..., "Rob Raisch, The Internet Company" <raisch@internet.com> wrote:
>>
>> Ahhh.... the settlements issue. This will prove to be the death of the
>> Internet we have grown to love.
>
>Imminent death of the net predicted.
>
...
>
>Do you think the CIX was created just for kicks?
>
>Okay, so Network C connects with network D, which has already
>contracted for access to networks A and B. A get a clue, and
>contracts directly with C for access to B, or maybe E comes along and
>sees that D is charging C enough for E to SLIP in underneath.
>
Except that network D was prohibited from directly connecting
to network B, because network B is connected to network A
under the standard network A gateway attachment contract, which
FORBIDS connecting to any other network provider, as a provider
OR as a customer. So network D is only able to offer connectivity
to network B via network A, on network A's terms.
Then network E comes along and finds that network D is charging
C a lot, but that network A can charge network B and C whatever
they want, and can lower their rates to drive E out of business,
because network A gets their entire operating expense from the
taxpayer, via an agency of the US government.
I doubt that there will ever be a "level playing field"
But it sure would be nice if everybody at least had to
play the same game.
-matthew kaufman
matthew@echo.com
