Re: Current street prices for US Internet Transit

[Patrick W Gilmore <patrick () ianai net>]

On Aug 17, 2004, at 1:55 PM, William B. Norton wrote:

> > >         The Cost of Internet Transit in..
> > > Commit  AU      SG      JP      HK      USA
> > > 1 Mbps  $720    $625    $490    $185    $125
> > > 10 Mbps $410    $350    $150    $100    $80
> > > 100 Mbps        $325    $210    $110    $80     $45
> > > 1000 Mbps       $305    $115    $50     $50     $30
> >
> > Someone mentioned that this was comparing apples to oranges. Indeed it
> > is, <stuff deleted>
>
> I would disagree that these are apples and oranges comparisons - these 
> are real prices (normalized to USD) for transit that someone in the 
> country would pay to access the big 'I' Internet. The Peering 
> Coordinators I spoke with that have expanded into these markets did 
> point out that each Peering Ecosystem differs - I think I documented 
> about 10 differences in the Asia Pacific Peering Guidebook - but, 
> ultimately, they will need to buy transit in that market. So these 
> numbers are useful for budgeting for network expansion into Asia.

Bill, as the person who said you were comparing apples & oranges, I'm 
not sure I understand your disagreement.

Are you saying that if something costs more in Singapore or Australia 
than the US, then the companies selling that product here in the US for 
less must be selling below cost?

Things are not the same everywhere.  Politics, infrastructure, labor, 
taxes, and a myriad of other factors make it not very useful to say "US 
is $30, AU is $300" and expect to draw any meaningful conclusion by the 
comparison - except, of course, that AU transit is more expensive than 
US transit.


> I would also share that the local loop prices in these other markets 
> vary widely ; an OC-3 local loop in Singapore may be twice the cost of 
> a distance insensitive OC-3 local loop in Hong Kong. To that end, the 
> business cases for peering will be quite different.

Well, then I would submit, by your logic above, that the people in HK 
are selling OC3s at an "unhealthy" price, and they are "greasing the 
skids to financial ruin for this industry".  How else could those in HK 
sell for 1/2 the price of those in SK?

Apples-to-apples....

--
TTFN,
patrick