Why so little traffic from C&W

Fri Jun 8 16:03:39 UTC 2001

On Thu, Jun 07, 2001 at 10:45:41PM +0100, Simon Lockhart wrote:
> I believe the latest common definition of tier 1 in that of an ISP with no 
> transit.

I believe that "Tier-1" no longer means anything.  It was a term
that had meaning when the government got out of the business of
running NSFNet, and created "Tier-1 Providers" that connected to
"Tier-2 Providers".  At that time (if perhaps only for a fairly
brief time) there were actual defined tiers, and they ment something.

The mutation of "tier 1" to mean "transit free" is questionable at
best.  After all, if you're transit free, you should just advertise
that fact if you think it's important.

That said, many marketing folks still want to use the term "Tier-1".
When a prospective customer asks me if my employer is "Tier-1" I
always respond with "What does Tier-1 mean to you", and then address
their specific concerns.  You get some wildly different answers too.

-- 
Leo Bicknell - bicknell at ufp.org
Systems Engineer - Internetworking Engineer - CCIE 3440
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