PAIX

Mon Nov 18 21:29:46 UTC 2002

On Mon, 18 Nov 2002, Jere Retzer wrote:

> Maybe it is a function of the origin and destination location + network.
> Since Portland is not a top 25 market our service has never been very 
> good that's why we started an exchange

Yep, Intenet service quality is very uneven; and it does not seem to be an
easily quantifiable factor allowing consumers and businesses to select a
provider.  So, all providers looking the same, they choose the
lowest-priced ones, thus forcing providers to go air transport way (i.e.  
untimately destructive price wars).

With full understanding of political infeasibility of proposed, I think
that the best thing ISPs could do is to fund some independent company
dedicated to publishing comprehensive regional ISP quality information -
in a format allowing apple-to-apple comparison.  Then they could justify
price spread by having facts to back them up.

--vadim