flat vs non-flat charging

[Jerry Scharf <scharf () vix com>]

I think the idea of distance charging is going away in many cases. With WDM, 
the cost of the WDM and SONET eqiupment on the ends of a fully populated 32 
channel per fiber, 144 strand pull vastly outweight end-to-end fiber costs of 
anything pulled through the ground. When you add routers and the like on top 
of that, the distance issue really goes away and it becomes on of network 
topology hops. Can anyone with figures for new intercontinental pulls say 
whether this is true there as well (project oxygen marketing claims this, 
but...)?

Using archaic telephone pricing models to argue cost of providing bulk IP 
services is just not right.

jerry