Provider credibility - does it matter? was Re: Inter-provider relations

Fri Oct 25 13:58:57 UTC 1996

   Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 13:44:51 +0100 (BST)
   From: Jim Dixon <jdd at vbc.net>

   Not at all necessarily correct.  We are a UK backbone provider.  We carry 
   much of our traffic 6000 miles to California over very expensive Atlantic
   circuits, where we pass it off to American providers, who use very cheap
   and much shorter US links.  We ship about 5% more traffic to the USA than
   we get back.  So on balance we are subsidizing the US Internet:

   *	we pay more to carry the packets
   *	we give more than we receive

Before you go making statements like that, please answer the following
questions:

1) How many US ISP's customers would notice if vbc.net fell off the
net?

2) How many of vbc.net's customers would notice if the USA fell off
the net?

You're welcome to stop subsidizing the US Internet any time you
please.  And be sure to put a note in your trouble ticket system
reminding your customers not to let the doorknob hit them in the ass
on the way out the door...

If I live more than a mile and a half or so from a central office,
installation of a T1 will require a special engineering fee.  Unlike
you, I'm not cheeky enough to assert that my unfortunate location
represents a subsidy to the US Internet.

                                        ---Rob