Re: A PRIVATE INTERNET (NYT story off the Net)

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 13:50:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: deyoung () ARPA MIL
David,


     I think a more important point to mention is that the
Internet exploded the way it did precisely because of the
Government funding in the past.  This funding provided a stable
base for the important research that led to the interoperability
standards that permitted the exponential growth we have seen in
the Internet.  Without these funds, each service provider would
have their own proprietary way of doing things, with the same
result that we now have in the CD ROM arena, and much slower
growth (and also much higher cost).  The Government got each of
the participants to carry traffic for the others, without
additional costs, or the incredible billing nightmare that would
have arisen to guarantee each person got charged the right amount
for the traffic they sent, the distance the packets went and the
bandwidth used to transmit the data.  One last item, the amount
listed was $12M, NOT $12B per annum.


> Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 11:33:57 -0400
> From: farber () central cis upenn edu (David Farber)
> Subject: Re: A PRIVATE INTERNET (NYT story off the Net)... [
Dave is right in the last paragraph]