Re: Sprint / Cogent dispute over?

[Florian Weimer <fw () deneb enyo de>]

* Paul Vixie:

> if cogent signed a trial peering contract which required payment if sprint
> determined after three months that cogent did not qualify, then the court's
> open questions are was the contract valid (and thus, does cogent owe sprint
> money) and why isn't there some kind of common carriage law for IP like in
> dialtone to protect the end users from these types of partition events?

Even for the phone network, I don't think you've got full isolation of
end users from partition.  For instance, beyond geographical area
codes, full connectivity is not guaranteed (and not given) on the
German PSTN.  Is this different in the U.S.?  Can you really call all
phone sex numbers from all residential lines (content filters
notwithstanding)?