[NANOG] L3's plan was: Level3 not honoring Broadwing contracts?

Tue Apr 29 19:21:19 UTC 2008

> 
> They will then focus on the "NFL cities" for colocation and only provide 
> bandwidth/transport/other network services to everyone else.
> 

Can we discuss how ridiculous the "NFL cities" model is? Yes, I get it. 
NFL cities meet a certain size criteria in terms of business, 
population, talent, etc. [feel free to replace NFL cities by: Tier "1" 
Cities/Metros, Major passenger or cargo airports, historic Train 
locations, Blockbuster Locations, Fedex depots, etc]

But when you compare your business plan to *every* other 
National/International player that has the EXACT same plan and city 
map... um... where is your differentiation? (Even if one calls its NFL 
cities and one calls it "Major Airports")

The ridiculous part of the plan is that a) it does not obviate the need 
for in-between depots of connectivity [for regens, ROADMs, etc] and b) 
each city has a different specific mix of data/colo/IP/voice/what have 
you based on local demographics (and incumbents)... and there is no 
planning of right-sizing capex and revenue.

Oh well, I think I'll be concerned when a company actually has a real 
business plan rather than something recycled from the bottom of a box of 
Cracker Jack's.

Operational Content: While there are significant opex costs to removed 
by making places like WDC, SFO, JFK/LGA, LAX and others great hubs of 
interconnectivity there is a) an over-concentration of SPOFs and 
vulnerability to localized infrastructure threats, and b) hyper 
competition in some markets and gross under competition in others. The 
profits many of these carriers seek may come from running a few colos in 
"2nd tier" cities at much higher prices than they can charge in the "1st 
tier" cities.

But then again -- if these guys had to show profits, they wouldn't be 
the guys they are today... They might even have executives with a proper 
business pedigree (you know MBAs or better from places that don't 
advertise on billboards and at professional sporting events) and not 
need to piss away billions in revenues to meet their use guidelines.

Does Level3 have a stadium yet? I think they need one to brand so they 
can finally file for that BK that's been hanging around their neck for 
years.

Deepak Jain
AiNET

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