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

Robert E. Seastrom rs at bifrost.seastrom.com
Fri Oct 25 17:39:47 UTC 1996


   From: Jim Dixon <jdd at vbc.net>

   There is a name for this ridiculous style of argument, but I don't 
   remember it ...

The names that come immediately to mind are "capitalism", "what's in
it for me" and "TANSTAAFL".  Also "reality".

   Let's recast the questions:

   1.  How many UK ISPs would notice if seastrom.com fell off the Net?

That's largely irrelevant -- I'm not asking you to peer with my home
network and transport my traffic at no charge.

   2.  How many of seastrom's customers would notice if Europe fell off
       the Net?

Not many.

   Europe heavily subsidizes the US Internet.  It's not just VBCnet: the 
   European Internet community pays something like 90% of the costs of 
   traffic between Europe and North America.  The same applies to the
   rest of the world.

So, what you're saying is that US Internet users should be helping to
subsidize your socialist Government-monopoly telephone companies that
charge you several times what a line is worth.  And we should do this
simply because YOU choose to do business in a country that supports a
sub-optimal economic model.  I'm sorry, but I don't play that game.

Have you ever considered that you might have a lot less bandwidth cost
to the States if (as Jeremy Porter pointed out) the costs to run a
line intra-Europe reflected the REAL COST of doing so instead of being
government-sanctioned overcharging.

To get the who's-subsidizing-whom argument correct, perhaps you might
want to consider that the competitive environment in the US is
subsidizing your trans-Eurpoean connectivity.

   Poor models
   make for poor reasoning, just like talking without listening makes
   for a poor dialog.

The thing that makes for the worst dialog is when you try to advance
an untenable position.  There will always be a cost of doing business
for your company -- if you feel that the current model is unfair, you
can (a) lobby your government to completely privatize the telecom
infrastructure and deregulate it opening it up to competition, (b)
move your operation to more friendly territory, or (c) go out of
business.  But don't give us this "Europe is subsidizing US
infrastructure" dreck.

                                        ---Rob







More information about the NANOG mailing list