North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical from Dave Farber's list: Ireland to regulate peering
(apologies if this appears twice) >From: Alex French <[email protected]> >Subject: Ireland to regulate peering .... >In brief: New rules being put in place by the Irish telecoms regulator >will regulate IP peering between ISPs as if it were a voice interconnect. >I'd love to hear from any other IPers who know if this is being proposed >anywhere else in Europe. As far as I know, this is unprecedented. > >The Irish telecoms regulator (ComReg) has announced a new set of licensing >rules for telcos. The bad part is that the rules have been greatly >expanded to include regulation of "all electronic communications >networks", including (apparently) ISP networks and VPN operators. > >ComReg is planning to apply the principles of voice interconnect to all >network types; this means that "operators of public communications >networks shall have a right, and when requested by other [operators], an >obligation to negotiate interconnection with each other for the purpose of >providing publicly available electronic communications services." In >effect, IP networks will have to peer with each other on request. > >Even worse, the "interconnect" (i.e. peering) prices will be subject to >review by the Irish regulator if either party feels that they're not being >offered a fair deal. > >The cherry on the cake is that ISPs can be designated as having >"Significant Market Power" (this used to be defined as having 25% of a >market, but the criteria are now more nebulous). If you have SMP, you must >publish your network cost accounting as prove that the peering prices you >charge are cost-oriented (cost + a reasonable ROI) > >As I see it, this will lead to the collapse of the current peering/transit >negotiation process that ISPs have successfully used all over the world >for years. I don't even see how this would benefit smaller ISPs, since the >new rules are likely to discourage larger companies from entering this >market at all. At the very least, the regulation of peering rates has got >to hurt competition. > >The relevant documents are available at http://www.comreg.ie. Specific >links are > >http://www.comreg.ie/whats_new/default.asp?ctype=5&nid=101003 >http://www.comreg.ie/whats_new/default.asp?ctype=5&nid=100998 > --Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb (me) http://www.wilyhacker.com (2nd edition of "Firewalls" book)
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