Re: Funding for NAPs...

[Dave Siegel <dsiegel () rtd com>]

> Out of curiosity...where does the money come from to keep exchange points 
> like the MAEs alive?  Is NSF or other government money involved?  If so, 
> what are the terms of the funding?

the MAE's are run by MFSDatanet (or have been to date, anyway).  You pay them
for your connection to their equipment, as well as a port charge, and in turn,
they finance the exchange point.

The NAP providers (Ameritech, Sprint, and PacBell) do get some government money.
As with all government funding, there is red tape, such as providing services to
R&E type stuff.

MFSDatanet:  http://www.mfsdatanet.com/mfs-datanet/
Americech NAP:  http://www.ameritech.com/products/data/nap/
Pacbell NAP:  http://www.pacbell.com/Products/NAP/
Sprint NAP:  http://www.???.???/

other:  you might www.ra.net

Dave

-- 
Dave Siegel                     President, RTD Systems & Networking, Inc.
(520)623-9663                   Systems Consultant -- Unix, LANs, WANs, Cisco
dsiegel () rtd com                      User Tracking & Acctg -- "Written by an ISP, 
http://www.rtd.com/                                             for an ISP."