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

Sat Oct 26 20:39:00 UTC 1996

>I am not on some sort of crusade; this is not a stable arrangement and
>won't last.  Benefits flow both ways; in time the costs will come to
>more or less match the benefits.  Not because I say yes or you say no
>but because the market will adjust itself.
> 
>> business.  But don't give us this "Europe is subsidizing US
>> infrastructure" dreck.
>
>Oh, lighten up.
>
>As I said, my main point was that the Economist's model was seriously
>flawed.  
>
>I am an American doing business in both the States and Europe, not a 
>socialism-loving American-flag-burning Limey.  ;-)  
>
>I can see how the system currently works, and I know it's not going to last.

Of course, as long as there are more users of the Internet located
in the US, and more content sites in the US, and the interesting
applications located in the US, there will be a greater value
to the non-us IPs to drop lines in, and as our Asian friends have
pointed out it is often cheaper to drop lines to the West coast
of the US than to drop inter-asia links.  
If companies like Global Sprintlink, Cable and Wireless, etc,
are going into non-US peering locations, then it is already
changing.  However compared to the amount of Internet bandwidth
in the US, compared to elsewhere, I seriously doubt that there
is any kind of siginifcant subisidy to US users.

(Just because it costs non-US based ISPs more to play the 
fully connected game, doesn't mean there is a signficant cost
difference, just a market imbalance.

---
Jeremy Porter, Freeside Communications, Inc.      jerry at fc.net
PO BOX 80315 Austin, Tx 78708  |  1-800-968-8750  |  512-458-9810
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