[9153] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: an Internet buying coop?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dick St.Peters)
Sun Dec 19 16:41:06 1993
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 93 16:37:17 EST
From: stpeters@spare-parts.crd.ge.com (Dick St.Peters)
To: karl@mcs.com
Cc: tenney@netcom.com, com-priv@psi.com, communet@nysernet.org,
Reply-To: <stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com>
> If there is a coop out there that thinks they can make a go of it, pull the
> line and do your own resale deal with whoever. This is a ~$30k + $10k (CIX
> membership) annual proposition. If you can make it pay with $50,000 a year
> in direct costs then more power to you. That is exactly what anyone else
> can do.
There would be lots of coops that could make a go of it if they didn't
have to shell out $50K/yr but instead paid slightly higher costs for
service as their share of their provider's membership. The free market
is a damn good system for apportioning costs among users.
> Doing this means that your cost of doing so as a coop is <reasonable>. If
> the CIX becomes a small members-only club then the cost is going to rise
> astronomically and shut out the coops and other "nontraditional" members from
> participating at all. It also sets the stage for a really ugly monopoly
> position to develop where a very small number of providers end up basically
> pricing CIX membership out of reach for all except a few. This is NOT a
> good thing.
The CIX is *now* a members-only club with a membership fee that is *not*
reasonable for a small coop. CIX membership is already priced out of
reach of all but a few.
I'm opposed to this philosophically; I like free market pricing, not
pricing and policy dictated by trade associations - or anyone else.
As a practical matter though it's currently almost irrelevant. The out
for a small coop is the "multiple geographic areas" clause pointed out
by someone last time this thread came up. It's still possible to
construct scenarios where this could be a problem, but the clause does
read like the CIX is trying not to get in the way of the small guys:
they don't have to join until they become big guys.
--
Dick St.Peters
GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com
