On Thu, 21 Oct 2004, Alastair Johnson wrote:
Their problem was, say, an Auckland based ISP dumping megabits of content onto their network, for delivery to a customer in Christchurch.
A TCL customer in ChCh, or another ISP customer?
A TCL customer in ChCh, be it an ISP, corporate, dialup, DSL, RFC1149, etc.
Bollocks. What about a United States customer "dumping" megabits of content onto their network, for delivery to a customer in Christchurch? Like those Apple guys with their "iTunes" service, or those Valve Software dudes, with their "Steam" product. Logically, they should be paying TelstraClear, too. They're using TelstraClears network to get their content to TelstraClear customers. Except .. oh, wait, no the internet _doesn't actually work like that_, does it? It's the _TelstraClear customers_ who are paying TelstraClear to bring internet content to them, and it's actually TelstraClears problem to sort out the most efficient and cost-effective way to do that, so as to maximise profit. And what do you know, the most efficient and cost-effective way to do that turns out to be setting up direct peering links with the major content providers, or with IXes that the major content providers have a presence at. Who'd have thought? What TelstraClear seems to think will happen is that they will de-peer, and everyone else will go "Bloody hell! Can't reach TelstraClear via a cheap, cost-effective route! Having to send data via my default route! Must give them money to rectify this!" What I think will happen, on the other hand, is that they will de-peer and everyone else will go "Huh. How about that. Well, whatever. It's their network, they can do what they want." and that meanwhile a large chunk of TelstraClears customers will ring them up their account reps/call center and say "Why can't I get to Trademe when all my friends on other ISPs can?" or "Why is it really slow to get to NZDating when it's really fast from every other ISP?". And TelstraClear will tell them .. [Something. I have no idea what. I don't know what I'd say to my customer base at this point.] ...and then the customers will promptly: (a) Leave. When you're Telstra in Australia (where I suspect this de-peering directive has originated) you get to laugh loudly at this point and say "Hah! You'll _what_, customer base?! Go elsewhere?! AHAHAHAHAHA, where are you going to go? We're TELSTRA!". But in New Zealand, the customers have a big selection of other ISPs who can offer exactly the same services as TelstraClear do (even using re-sold TelstraClear network infrastructure) and who also peer with everyone they can. I don't see ANY reason why people couldn't go elsewhere. (b) Make Noise. Bitch and Gripe at TelstraClear so much that they quietly resume advertising their networks to the route reflectors, and it's business as usual on the NZ Internet. I'm pretty much expecting this to happen, assuming TCL actually get around to de-peering in the first place. That they may not de-peer at all is actually a possibility, given that I don't know ANYONE who's actually gone and bought a domestic transit connection from them. As usual when I am discussing this particular topic, I must stress that my employer ICONZ does have a commercial arrangement with TelstraClear which covers domestic transit, and that ICONZ are very happy with the service, and that I am not saying anything negative about the TelstraClear Domestic Transit service itself. The views expressed in this message are my own personal opinions, and should not be viewed as anything else, and may not accurately reflect the views of ICONZ and ICONZ Management. Please don't sue, KTHX. JSR -- John S Russell | Big Geek | Doing geek stuff.