[9671] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: bill summary: Telecommunications Act
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Karl Denninger)
Sun Jan 16 03:22:00 1994
From: karl@mcs.com (Karl Denninger)
To: adamfast@u.washington.edu (adam fast)
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 02:20:04 -0600 (CST)
Cc: dave@oldcolo.com, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9401150920.E2734-0100000@goren1.u.washington.edu> from "adam fast" at Jan 15, 94 09:43:20 am
> On Sat, 15 Jan 1994, Dave Hughes wrote:
>
> > I don't want to question the proposed Washington law until I
> > understand it better - but would you answer Bruce Gingery's
> > question/observation - does it de facto freeze out of the
> > 'net' all the semi-publicand private systems like Fidonet,
> > Mac's First Class networks, and even the individual 'Point'
> > softwares that are spreading?
> >
> > Or are we missing something?
>
> i understand your criticism-- there is not a clear definition of a
> data transport provider, versus /users/ of data transport providers. a
> sticky situation, to say the least.
>
> the intent of the act is to allow users and providers to use whatever
> protocols they want to use, as long as they publish them, /not/ to
> restrict or outlaw the use of any protocol.
>
> the intent of the act is to facilitate and coordinate network
> interconnection at a neighborhood level, and if a fidonet or FirstClass
> network wants to connect to the data transport network, this gives them a
> way to, a place to, assurance it won't cost more than the actual costs,
> and a referee to help them.
Ok, here's another one for you.
Who determines "actual costs"?
Does this not prevent a small, nascent provider from making a profit on
passing traffic if they so choose? After all, we know that a big gnarly
company can hide costs, or (really) have higher costs than the small guy.
This makes for <severe> inequities in the marketplace, and comes back down
to the settlements issue again.
Note that we have long distance charges that are 2x what they need to be
<precisely> because of settlements. The last mile of your phone call is as
expensive as the 1500 miles in between.
Or is it just that someone is pocketing the money in the second case??
--
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