nanog mailing list archives
Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill]
From: Tom Vest <tvest () pch net>
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 20:03:24 -0500
On Nov 12, 2005, at 6:48 PM, Christopher L. Morrow wrote:
Are you suggesting a return to cost-based regulation? At one time airlineprices were regulated based on air mile distance.No, I'm not, actually I think that the answer to my question was: "Allbits cost the same to push inside 'my' network" (where 'my' is really anysingle entities network, and the cost is for that entity).
Is cost-based regulation so bad for critical, non-substitutable infrastructure? That's how the US market got flat-rate Internet access.
Is flat-rate the same thing as "making some people pay for more than they want"?
MCI Friends & Family charged different rates for phone calls depending whether the person you called was also a MCI customer. Was MCI illegally interfering with people calling AT&T customers by charging a differentrate? Level 3 charges different rates for "on-net" versus "off-net"traffic. Is Level 3 illegally interfering with people accessing content onother ISPs buy charging more? Many cell phone companies offer "free"minutes when you call other people in your plan. Is Verizon illegally interfering with other cell phone companies by charging more? Or in each of this cases, are they actually charging some people less? How do youdecide what is a "discount" or a "surcharge"?good question, I think all of the examples though have on thing in common: all the 'discount' is on 'local' traffic (local to the network), the cost differential is applied to 'non-local' traffic. This sort of goes to mypoint that inside a network bits all cost the same, its the externalplaces that cost more... Are the folks advocating making content providers pay for 'access' to their customers willing to stand up competing services locally? (something to keep their customers who lose access to things theyreally care about)
There no such thing as a market price for critical, non-substitutable infrastructure. Most markets/regulatory jurisdictions around the world don't have / never had any cost-based pricing requirements for network infrastructure, and in most of those markets the "market price" of infrastructure inputs is somewhere between 90-200% of the projected revenue potential that the infrastructure creates. That's why there are so few operators/ASNs in most countries -- there's very little upside for non-telcos -- and one of the reasons that markets like the US spawned so many infrastructure users.
That may be where the Internet is headed in the absence of some major trend shift, but is that where it should go, where we want it to go?
TV
Current thread:
- Re: What do we mean when we say "competition?", (continued)
- Re: What do we mean when we say "competition?" Robert E . Seastrom (Nov 26)
- Re: What do we mean when we say "competition?" Steve Sobol (Nov 26)
- Re: What do we mean when we say "competition?" Owen DeLong (Nov 26)
- Re: What do we mean when we say "competition?" Steve Sobol (Nov 27)
- Re: What do we mean when we say "competition?" Deepak Jain (Nov 26)
- Re: What do we mean when we say "competition?" Sean Donelan (Nov 27)
- Re: What do we mean when we say "competition?" Henry Yen (Nov 30)
- Re: What do we mean when we say "competition?" (was: Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill]) Marshall Eubanks (Nov 16)
- Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill] Bill Stewart (Nov 14)
- Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill] Christopher L. Morrow (Nov 12)
- Message not available
- Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill] Tom Vest (Nov 12)
- Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill] Christian Kuhtz (Nov 12)
- Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill] Tom Vest (Nov 12)
- Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill] Sean Donelan (Nov 12)
- Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill] Christopher L. Morrow (Nov 12)
- Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill] Owen DeLong (Nov 10)
- Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill] Gordon Cook (Nov 11)
- Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill] Stephen Sprunk (Nov 17)
- Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill] Sean Donelan (Nov 17)
- Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill] Todd Vierling (Nov 18)