Definition of ISP vs Transit provider

Wed Nov 22 21:29:29 UTC 2017

I can't seem to find the answer for this. But I'm curious as to what
exactly is proposed.

On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 3:35 PM, Jean-Francois Mezei <
jfmezei_nanog at vaxination.ca> wrote:

> The FCC is about to reclassify "Broadband Internet Access Service" as an
> information service instead of Telecommunications Service. This
> prombpted the following question which isn't about the FCC action per say.
>
> This is about how does one define Transit provider vs ISP ?
>
> Cogent for instance acts as a transit provider to other networks but
> also sells connectivity to companies.
>
> Peer1 in Canada used to sell "transit" to a then small emerging ISP, but
> as its sole transit provider, provided the BGP management as well as
> peering at Torix.  Is the service to the ISP still called "transit" ?
>
> Or would ISP be defined as the organsation which assigns IPs to end
> users via PPPoE of DHCP ?
>
> One could argue that a network which assigns 4 or less IPs per customer
> would be an ISP. But what about IPv6 where the ISP could give each end
> user a /64 ?
>
> Just curious to see if there are agreed upon definitions from the
> network operators's point of view.
>
> I note that large companies tend to do everything from transit, to
> residential ISP, business ISP, libraries, airports etc. For Bell Canada,
> it is almost all under AS577. So separating what is telecom and what is
> information becomes more "interesting".
>
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> As a point of reference this is what I *think* the FCC defines as an ISP:
>
> ##
> 23. Broadband Internet access service also does not include virtual
> private network (VPN) services, content delivery networks (CDNs),
> hosting or data storage services, or Internet backbone services (if
> those services are separate from broadband Internet access service),
> consistent with past Commission precedent.69 The Commission has
> historically distinguished these services from “mass market” services,
> as they do not provide the capability to transmit data to and receive
> data from all or substantially all Internet endpoints.70 We do not
> disturb that finding here.
>
> 24. Finally, we observe that to the extent that coffee shops,
> bookstores, airlines, private end- user networks such as libraries and
> universities, and other businesses acquire broadband Internet access
> service from a broadband provider to enable patrons to access the
> Internet from their respective establishments, provision of such service
> by the premise operator would not itself be considered a broadband
> Internet access service unless it was offered to patrons as a retail
> mass market service, as we define it here.71 Likewise, when a user
> employs, for example, a wireless router or a Wi-Fi hotspot to create a
> personal Wi-Fi network that is not intentionally offered for the benefit
> of others, he or she is not offering a broadband Internet access
> service, under our definition, because the user is not marketing and
> selling such service to residential customers, small business, and other
> end-user customers such as schools and libraries.
> ##
>
> The full 210 proposed FCC decision is at:
> https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-347927A1.pdf
>
>