RE: Cable & Wireless "de-peering"?!?

[Mike Leber <mleber () he net>]

People made similar claims regarding why AT&T shouldn't have been broken
up... also called the "a few big companies can take care of consumers
better" argument.  Watch CSPAN, you'll hear this argument periodically
from the megacorp of the week making it's case before congress.

Historically, a few big companies controlling any particular industry
results in slower innovation until some chaotic event occurs that allows
new entrants that don't have a vested interest in the status quo.

Remember how MCI got its start.  They weren't allways that big.  Did they
have a right to exist when they where small?  AT&T didn't think so and
didn't want them connecting to the phone network.  MCI went to court and
the rest is history.

On Mon, 7 May 2001, David Schwartz wrote:

> > I do still think UUnet is in a downward spiral, just like C&W. Strong
> > peering policies are not good for the Internet.
>
> > Greetz, Peter.
>
>       I'm not so sure that's true. Personally, I think the Internet is better
> served by having a smaller number of larger and better maintained meeting
> places than by just having a large number of peering points were everyone
> connects to everybody else.
>
>       Here are just a few reasons why, for example, it's better if you use
> transit to FooNet to reach BarNet rather than BarNet peering with you
> directly (assuming you are not too big yourself):
>
>       1) FooNet and BarNet are more likely to keep their peering points scaled to
> handle the load than you are. They are more likely to monitor performance
> and shut down failures.
>
>       2) FooNet and BarNet will meet at more places than you will meet BarNet,
> allowing traffic to get off the source network faster and providing better
> fault tolerance.
>
>       3) Fewer BGP sessions means faster convergence and less instability.
>
>       4) You may be more likely to meet BarNet at public peering points while
> FooNet is more likely to meet BarNet at private peering points. Your traffic
> to BarNet will get the benefit of the higher amounts of effort FooNet and
> BarNet will put into keeping their meeting points efficient.
>
>       DS

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