UUNET Pulling Peering - Core Issues

Charles R. Hoynowski charles at etak.com
Sat May 3 23:58:55 UTC 1997



Uh, excuse me?  I have no right to count on complete Internet connectivity
from my ISP?  This has some far reaching implications.

What consideration is being given to arguably the most impacted parties in
this new peering (or not peering) policy?  The business customers, selling 
services via the Internet.  Consider, company "A" on Alternet is contracted 
to provide data on demand to support services running on company "B", who 
is on another ISP.  Without warning or notice to its customers (which may be 
the most disturbing point) UUNET makes a policy decision to stop peering 
with the other ISP.  Company "B" goes out of business.  "B" sues "A" for 
breach of contract, "A" sues UUNET, etc.

Should ISPs be allowed to set peering policy for Internet?  Should they have
the right to define what the Internet is?

Which points out how the Internet really has become a common carrier/utility
company concern.  PacBell can't suddenly change your phone service because
they decide to.  There's public review and approval steps they have to
follow first.  And there's good reason for that.  The public relies on the
phone system for business transaction and private use.  The system must be
be maintained in a consistent manner to allow that to occur.  I don't need
to point out the similar common carrier roles ISPs and the Internet as a
whole have assumed.  

The issue has brought to light the fact than players in the ISP game want 
to assume the role, and make profits based on, of providing common utility 
services, without assuming the responsibility and accountability structures 
other public service providers must assume.

I believe this is the core issue at hand regarding UUNET's peering policy
changes and needs to be address at that level.


    _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/     _/  _/  Charles R. Hoynowski, Site Admin
   _/         _/_/   _/ _/    _/ _/    Etak, Inc., 1430 O'Brien Drive,
  _/_/_/     _/_/   _/_/_/   _/_/      Menlo Park, CA 94025
 _/         _/_/   _/   _/  _/  _/     Voice:415-617-4458 Fax:617-0161
_/_/_/_/   _/_/   _/    _/ _/    _/    Email: charles at etak.com	      






More information about the NANOG mailing list