[9330] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Cost vs benefit of internet services
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean Doran)
Wed Dec 29 16:18:11 1993
From: Sean Doran <smd@fish.com>
To: com-priv@uu.psi.com
In-Reply-To: Matthew Kaufman message of "Wed, 29 Dec 93 15:29:53 EST."
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1993 16:17:01 -0500
In msg <199312292029.MAA16172@echo.com> Matthew Kaufman writes:
| Right. And then find that you've now become an IP reseller,
| so most of the current IP providers won't talk to you, except
| for ANS (very expensive) or Sprint.
Actually, there are others who will talk quite happily to you,
although they tend also to be expensive, and want to make sure
that your customer-members remain your headaches, and not theirs.
| And then find that since you want AUP-free routing, your little
| effort has to join the CIX, so you're out another $10,000 / year.
| Oops. Ran out of money.
For a cooperative of ten people that's only $84/month each. Hardly
earth-shatteringly expensive.
| Wouldn't it be nice if there weren't such artifically-constructed
| barriers to entry to IP resale, so that you really COULD get
| together with your small number of friends and get a line and
| share it?
Firstly, there is nothing stopping you from setting up a small
organization with a small network of machines which is connected
via a network service provider. I doubt there is a network service
provider out there who would bat an eyelid about who and what used
those machines, provided that the traffic travelling up and down
the pipe was originated on or destined to a machine owned by that
organization.
The "artificial barrier to entry" shot is not only cheap, it's
meaningless. The biggest expense involved in providing IP service of
any kind is generally technical support, and this is especially true
when new customers buy bandwidth for the first time, and customers
who resell connectivity.
Before spouting on about what you think IP services should cost,
try being (or working for) a network service provider for a while.
You may find some of your attitudes changed by the experience.
Sean.
