fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

Richard Bennett richard at bennett.com
Wed Nov 25 06:35:53 UTC 2009


Of course, the FCC/FTC could always get involved and mandate full 
disclosure and peering neutrality.

That might be fun.

RB

Richard Bennett wrote:
>    Speculation about how the money flows is a worthwhile activity.
>    Paul Wall wrote:
>
> On 11/25/09, Richard Bennett [1]<richard at bennett.com> wrote:
>
> It turns out you can say any damn thing you want about peering since
> nobody has any facts.
>
> Indeed you can.  This is one of things where the people with the hard
> facts aren't talking due to NDA, regard for their pride, or both.  In
> the absence of solid data, most journalists (and I use the term
> loosely) take the high road, writing on only what they know about and
> can back up with fact.  It is unfortunate that you approach this
> differently, attempting to pass off Bill Norton's blog, itself very
> flawed and comprised of error upon error which he simply refuses to
> acknowledge or correct, as the new gospel.
>
> You write that "the shift of an enormous amount of Internet traffic
> from transit to paid peering is new, that's what the data in the Arbor
> Networks study shows". Nowhere in the Arbor study is there any
> analysis of where money is passing hands, or any settlement-based vs.
> settlement-free interconnection arrangement.  The report is a
> scientific one based upon aggregated netflow/sflow data, which doesn't
> take layers 8 and above into account.
>
> Also suspiciously absent is any disclosure of employer affiliations
> and biases.  You write that "[you're] opposed to the
> anti-discrimination rule that the FCC is considering".  What you
> fail to mention is that you work for the ITIF, a Washington think-tank
> allegedly funded by big cable.  Is it really any surprise that you
> want to preserve this revenue stream?
>
> Likewise, Norton neglects to mention that he works for NuMetra, a
> company going around to content and broadband operators trying to
> pitch a some black box which will enforce last-mile QoS and
> automatically pay the friendly local Internet monopoly/duopoly in
> "settlement" fees *on top* of your regular transit costs.  Of course
> he wants Uncle Sam to back off; that's how his employer benefits.  It
> is also important to consider Mr. Norton's role in Equinix, where he
> worked in MARKETING, far distanced from the establishment of actual
> peering agreements.  The real co-founders were Jay Adelson and Al Avery.
>
> It is sad to see that Mr. Norton, once a valued member of the
> community, so blatantly favoring the green stuff over fact-checking
> and journalistic integrity.  One can only hope Om Malik will carry out
> better due diligence in the future when hiring "industry experts" to
> write for him.
>
> Drive Slow,
> Paul Wall
>
> --
> Richard Bennett
> Research Fellow
> Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
> Washington, DC
>
> References
>
>    1. mailto:richard at bennett.com
>   

-- 
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC





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