(this is slightly off-topic for dns-wg, but I hope it helps to make the issues at hand easier to understand. I don't think that dns-wg should become a discussion list for ISP economics, so please be considerate if you respond to this..) On Tue, 21 Jan 1997 16:56:58 +0100 Marcel Schneider wrote:
As long as European major connectivity providers are ignoring each other and having their best interconnection points being MAE-East or the NY Nap all this seems useless to me...
Agreements, policies. Also my (personal) opinion. But as long as Peter Lothberg <roll@Stupi.SE> et al are attempting to tell us 'route your inter-European IP packets over the US' nothing will improve. The owners of 150+ MB links to the US can easily sell this opinion, but it is absurd.
Several people have told me they pay as much for a line to the USA, as a line between two European countries. The former is usually more useful, as for the latter you still need to obtain transit to other places, which has to be paid for too. Hence, a typical setup is a line to the USA, and some local peering, which is often only for national traffic. Personally, I think that for this reason Peter's comments are valid. It has nothing to do with Internet politics, but everything to do with extremely high prices for international lines in Europe. Europe hasn't changed much in this regard. Geert Jan