Michael Turner wrote:
> Packets get to where they need to go (subject to filtering, of course)
> by being routed -- if DoCoMo connects to something that has an
> overseas connection (however indirectly), packets will get through,
> though not necessarily with satisfactory speed or latency.
I was told in Hong Kong at least that connecting to the local Internet
Exchange, which would allow an ISP to connect to any ISP connected to
that Exchange, does not guarantee Internet connectivity. The local
exchange route traffic between the local networks. International
carriers, such as WorldCom, who connect to the exchange to access Hong
Kong-based networks actually filter all the traffic on the uplink (only
their's get through) via the routing table, so that a smaller Hong
Kong-based ISP cannot use WorldCom's bandwidth to connect to the US. In
fact, I suspect all the ISPs do this since NOT doing it means that their
international bandwidth might be used by someone else, degrading
performance and quality. The Hong Kong Exchange itself actually requires
an ISP to have international bandwidth before it lets them connect. The
cost of international bandwidth in Hong Kong still makes up about
30%-40% of an ISP's total operating costs, so I don't think ISPs will
willingly share what they have with their competitor.
I'm assuming that it is the same in Japan and that Japanese corporate
practices don't allow NTT Comm to subsidize DoCoMo's international
connections even if it now owns Verio. Even if it does, the cost has to
go somewhere and with DoCoMo's performance far outpacing that of NTT
Comm, I wouldn't be surprise that it comes off BigD's bottomline instead
of Comms'.
The other twist is that, US Internet Exchanges demand unconditional
peering from other Asian ISPs who pay a peering charge as well as the
trans-pacific circuit to hook up to California. The result is that a lot
of US traffic accessing Asian-based servers are traveling over
international circuits paid entirely by Asian ISPs, which is the trade
dispute between Asia and the US within APEC.
Also, ask any of the global network builders, Flag, Level 3, Global
Crossing and now bankrupted 360networks, and they will say that there is
not enough bandwidth today, hence the billions in investment into
terabit-level trans-pacific pipes. Then again, there is the bandwidth
glut/bubble argument.
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Received on Tue Jul 3 13:50:51 2001