The carriers started to realize that smaller ISPs were free-riding on their network, so they started charging for peering arrangements. The new technology presents its own interconnection complexities, with multiple layers of virtual networks built one over the other - so that an operator at any layer of the infrastructure will have its costs determined by the prices charged by the virtual network below it, while its prices, in turn, will determine the cost structure of the layer above. We discuss economic rationales behind peering decisions in the Internet. The latter is organized as club of academics who share the cost of their network. It is discussed whether peering threatens the existence of the ARN and under what circumstances a commercial ISP would want to use strategic pricing to win all ARN-members as customers.
Conversations are an important part of our daily lives.
For most people, in fact, they are the most important way to acquire and spread knowledge during a normal working day. Witness the popularity of email, chat, and instant messaging, which enable users to increase the range and scope of their conversations to reach those that they may not have before. There is no revenue credibility for new services on the Internet and that s the fault of the west coast hippies, said Tom Nolle of CIMI, a telecoms consultancy, in his keynote address to Vortex, a big telecoms conference that was held last month. Delegates applauded enthusiastically. He complains that the greybeards who designed the Internet still insist on trying to run it like a public utility, and he suggests that they should move to France .