North American Network Operators Group
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Re: Level 3's side of the story

  • From: Patrick W. Gilmore
  • Date: Fri Oct 07 23:28:34 2005 
On Oct 7, 2005, at 7:13 PM, William Allen Simpson wrote:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/ story/10-07-2005/0004164041&EDATE=
"On October 6, Level 3, as it had repeatedly advised Cogent it would, terminated free traffic exchange with Cogent. Because Internet users, apparently without notice from Cogent and through no fault of their own,
I don't remember seeing this public notice from Level(3) posted....
Wouldn't that be "without notice from Level(3)"?
Every peering agreement I have seen includes an NDA. Most certainly notified Cogent, and almost certainly had no legal right to issue a press release.


have been impacted, Level 3 has, effective immediately, re- established a free connection to Cogent. In order to allow Internet users to make alternative arrangements,
Splendid, that gives the world sufficient time to accept Cogent's offer
of 1 year free service.
I note that connecting to Cogent after November 9th will still give you only partial transit to the Internet - in fact, far less of the Internet than connecting to Level 3. (Despite Cogent's claims otherwise.)


we will maintain this connection until 6:00 a.m. ET, November 9, 2005. The effectiveness of this arrangement of course depends on Cogent's willingness to maintain their side of the traffic exchange.

At which time Level(3) will have had time to purchase transit, as it
will be a "tier 2" hoisted on its own petard.
Is there any particular reason you think Level 3 will buy transit? Or that they give a rat's ass what tier _you_ think they are?

Perhaps Cogent will have had time to buy transit?

Or perhaps - just perhaps - the Internet will be bifurcated for the time being. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with an Internet which isn't fully connected. Each business will work out its own business needs and use the transit provider(s) they see fit.

I am a bit confused about why so many people think this is such a bad thing. Personally, I believe there is room in the market for partial transit providers. I guess that theory is about to be tested.

--
TTFN,
patrick