RE: Peering, Large ISPs, and You

[Vijay Gill <vijay () umbc edu>]

On Wed, 25 Jul 2001, Daniel Golding wrote:

> sets of rules. From my reading of these comments, it looks like they are
> starting to work together, and plan jointly. If this is true (and at least
> one non-anonymous poster has seemed to confirm it), than thats bad.

Dan,

  this secret "cabal" of all controlling, all knowing large ISP's working
in concert to the detriment of the "small" ISP is bullshit. The processes
and politics are so bad that chances of a _single_ ISP's divisions making
a coherent plan are far more likely than developing a lighter than air
pig. Now apply that across 10 of these ISPs.

> Yes. But previously, all these ISPs made independent decisions, which
> encouraged competition. If all of them jointly choose a single player
> in a certain market, thats bad for competition. That has NOT happened
> previously.

This solution mandates many things, including entrance facilities, the
provider being willing to work with the fiber folks at pulling in the
strands, providing the power, space and cooling. Security, cross connect,
and remote hands. Given the state of the colo market, I am surprised
anyone got the business, and chances are, to get the business someone had
to be very willing to commit to meeting the requirements and so they got
the business. Capitalism at its finest as it were.

/vijay