On Sun, Feb 01, 2004 at 11:17 +1300, Ewen McNeill wrote:
This could pretty much be implemented today by anyone with a firewall (or customer facing ACLs) which can be set on a per-customer basis.
And has, after all, its really about taking the corporate Internet user model and offering it to ISP customers. In the past the ISP customer has had greater freedom than the corporate cubicle (non-IT) user because they are perceived to be paying for the service. Now we have the irony of paying (probably extra) to have those old consumer ISP freedoms limited even more... But that its ironic doesn't make it stupid. The general idea you appear to me to be espousing is a Ham radio model, the careless and clueless get recievers that at worst do limited harm and those who pass the licence can get direct to the ether... My hope is that both problems, interference caused by poorly configured terminals in an unlicensed "spectrum," will be solved by smarter terminals than in centrist licensing and control. There are other networks if people find the Internet unrewarding, perhaps that diversity is a good idea too.
Ewen
Hamish. PS. On the "core exchange" concept that has been mentioned, I was reminded by someone at a large telco recently that "core" no longer refers to a central single location, unless you want it to. I think he meant almost any service (various "n00b Internet" options for example) can be delivered from the "edge" (using some of that tunnelling technology...) -- We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects. -- Alexis de Tocqueville