|
North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Cogent/Level 3 Contracts (was: Cogent/Level 3 depeering)
> > Rather than speculation, it would be helpful to refer to the actual > > contracts. Please post the relevant sections, Mr Wilcox. > > the contract talks of on-net traffic, off-net traffic and excused outages > > excused outages includes that of third party network providers > > off-net traffic has a 99% SLA excluding excused outages. One interesting point that came up in an off-list message that I received was the topic of arbitration. Would anyone be in a position to estimate how many peering agreements include an arbitration clause such as this one: http://www.cidra.org/modelarb.htm I have no relationship with CIDRA, but since they are in Chicago, a major trading center, and they offer international arbitration, I thought they were an appropriate example. In the non-Internet world of telecommunications, the state PUCs handle arbitration of interconnect disputes but that is because this role is embedded in the Telecommunications Act of 1966. Other arbitration services include http://www.adr.org who are tied in to the NAFTA agreements, http://www.cpradr.org/ http://www.usam.com/ http://www.acrnet.org/ Here is a quick summary of US arbitration law http://www.arbitration.co.nz/content.asp?section=Arbitration&country=USA Seems to me that the ideal here would be for the industry to agree on a dispute resolution mechanism and for all bilateral peering agreements to include the same arbitration clause. For this kind of arbitration to function well, the arbitrators need to have some understanding of the industry and the technology. This can only be accomplished by selecting one arbitration organization to handle all the arbitration duties for the whole industry. Airing dirty landry in public like this hurts the whole industry, not just Level 3 and Cogent in particular. The solution is to use binding arbitration clauses in all interconnect agreements whether settlement-free, paid peering or settlement-based. --Michael Dillon
|