Hi all, Things have been rather quiet on all this stuff for a while, so I thought I'd have a go at inciting some discussion. First, on a practical note -- despite the vaguaries of slipping network provisioning timescales and a million other things that have conspired to prevent it, CLEAR's ethernet switch should be live on L48, Sky Tower, early next week (the installer is telling me "Tuesday"). As I think I've mentioned before, CLEAR is not installing routers at the APE, but is rather will remote connect two major border routers to other exchange participants' equipment using an ethernet switch in the tower, and a 155M ATM drop back to Symonds Street. As soon as the switch is live, people are more than welcome to arrange a connection to it (contact me). Second, I read Richard's APE announcement on this (and other lists), and saw the articles in ComputerWorld, and was a little concerned about the picture that was painted. It seems to me that the Auckland Peering Exchange is an initiative which involves: + network operators + bilateral agreements between those operators + a colocation site and facilitator + individual agreements between operators and that facilitator + some means of connecting the operators together in a network sense Citylink have offered one method of connecting operators together in the tower, in the from of a managed ethernet switch. However, some of the press about this ignores the first four points above, and presumes that Citylink == APE. I have also heard from some Auckland operators who are confused at the apparent transition of the APE from a cooperative proposal to a commercial operation run by a single provider (Citylink). Note that I'm not trying to bash Richard's effort in this area -- far from it, I think what Citylink are proposing (as usual) is good. However, I think it is important to appreciate that once operators have arranged colo with JDA, and have installed their equipment in the tower, they are free to connect to other providers by whatever means suits them. Citylink do not have a monopoly on connectivity on the 48th floor. Joe [Sent to ape-discuss mailing list; bcc'd to nznog -- to subscribe to ape-discuss send "subscribe ape-discuss" to majordomo(a)patho.gen.nz] --------- To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog