[8837] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: CIX Connectivity for ANS Customers
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Joseph Stroup)
Mon Dec 6 17:48:11 1993
From: joseph@path.net (Joseph Stroup)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 14:46:45 PST
In-Reply-To: cook@path.net (Gordon Cook)
To: cook@path.net
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Gordon, Yes, I was promised (not offered) Full CIX access by ANS and so was
Digital Express. Both of us were not interested in paying the $10,000 fee
if there was no reason to. Digex.net has a gateway agreement with ANS and
by right's should be paying full CIX fee's. The day or so before my site
went live, both Doug at Digex and myself expressed concerns about having
full and complete access to member sites (CIX). We were told that that
would be no problem and had a very long talk with ANS about it.
Now you ask , how can they do something like this before they were a CIX
member ? ANS felt that the CIX needed them more than ANS needed the CIX.
Again, both Digex and my company talked to ANS about these matters at great
length. Given the way ANS felt about its standing as a backbone provider it
seemed to me that ANS felt there was nothing to lose in allowing DIGEX.NET
and NUG.NET access to the networks - globally. Now, understand this. ANS was
trying to gain in market share and had this new idea (Diamond Mine) to try
out. I know that there are other customers who have this type of arrangements
with ANS and you had better not expect them to say so here. As far as Digex
goes... I would say, it would not be in their best interest to "talk" about
any of this.
Now, you ask how can things get routed. Routed around the CIX ? Or routed
to and from the CIX as well as DOE & many other places. I have a great
respect for Rick Adams and the people at PSi. They are in a better position
to comment on how this is down. The problem is more political than it is
technical. ANS has a man - John Hedderman, who handles the routing. John
is very good at what he does and can make things (packets) go just about
wherever he is told to send them.
AS far as joining the CIX from the ANS standpoint. I asked them alot about
it. I was told by several people that ANS had its legal people look into
the matter. The opinion was that the CIX as its set up was in direct violation
of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Again this became another concern on my part.
Sorry for the typo's. I have not been on a computer in some time.
ANS also told me that they had spent approx. $20,000 in legal fee's helping
the CIX to re-write its charter, in order to avoid an anti-trust problem.
As I asked people like Bill Washburn and others about this, I was told that
these statements were just not true. As far as the filtering problem. I guess
the CIX finally decided that ANS was not going to join and actions had to be taken.
I see where ANS is a CIX member but, this in no way changes the status of sites
like DIGEX.NET. What the CIX will do about this remains to be seen. Who knows
what is going on behind the closed doors.
So to sum things up you wanted to know of an example. I think that I have
answered your questions. I also make note, that you like to quote sources
in order to back up your articles. What I have told you is factual. Who
were the people at ANS that made these gurantees to myself and Doug at Digex ?
The following people were involved in giving permission & making the promises..
Al Wies ANS Pres.
Joel Maloff VP
Jordon Becker
Percy Foster - Sales
Could I prove that these things were said ? Yes, the critical phone calls
about the CIX issue and other things were actually setup by me. I placed
a conference call to ANS as well as Doug at Digex. Jordon Becker and all the
people above were online.
One thing should be kept in mind here. I would expect to find the same kind
of business situations in mant of the corporations around the U.S. I just
did not like being a part of something that was being run this way.
