Most cable and DSL contracts give providers 30 days to fix an outage,
without gross neglaence or financial compensation, when you read the fine
print.
But I can tell you that after 3 days, its living hell for both parties if
its not involved, regardless of what the contract says.
You can now argue that ILECs aren't legally required to provide to deliver
Network Neutrality practices to third parties, but they are still expected,
and when they aren't the Press has a field day.
My point is that there are always two things in place. 1) A legal agreement,
meant to protect the intities, and then 2) the "expectations" that someone
has for the future of the relationship.
Legal agreements are handled in court. Expectations (whether they are
reached or not) are handled via social pressure. With the exception of
maybe a Lawyer, the public almost always puts a higher value on what is
right and wrong with little regard for what a legal agreement says. That is
why MANY legal agreements get revised after the fact, pre/post a dispute, to
reassess the terms to match new expectations of both parties.
That would have put Level3 in default of the peering contract most likely.
At least, when we enter into peering contract the speed is specified.
Thats a good point. But not necessarilly. Level3 claimed to have given
Cogent multiple notices that they were going to de-peer them. Level3 had
fair right to legally cancel the peering agreement, and give statement that
it was effectively cancelled. Just because they Legally cancelled the
peering agreement didn't mean that they had to technically de-peer. After
the fact they could have just bandwidth managed, to force the ratios, to
minimize the impact to Cogent and Level3 customers.
The truth is there was no "more guilty party". This was a Wild West, 15
round Prize fight, Showdown. Two parties trying to prove and learn who was
stronger. It takes two to showdown.
This is event is one of the more well know peering disputes today. It opened
the eyes at the FCC relating to NetNeutrality. And it has all the other
Tier1 providers using it as a historical record of what would happen. I also
believe it indirectly prevented other similar re-occurrances.
Folks that were single-homed lost business and learned not to rely on
Cogent.
Fully agree. We felt it big, and still feel it today, from customer
perception. It wasn't a win for anyone.
But Level3 also felt it big, I know alot of Level3 web hosts that now have
redundant circuits with Cogent.
It was also Level3, that downsized and discontinued alots of their dealers
this past year, possibly a side effect of lost market share, from this type
dispute.
Level3 undisputedly knowingly caused harm to Cogent customers by their
actions.
Level3's reputation was heavilly tarnished because of it as an ego driven,
no remorse, bad guy, regardless of whether they had juste cause for their
de-peering.
Ultimately, today Cogent's peering is worse than it was before the Level3
dispute.
I'm not sure that is true. And if it were, I'd argue, its not related, as
the Level3 insodent caused damage in areas relating to customers perception,
not peering.
Whether Cogent has or doesn't have good peering is a totally different
topic.
Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matt Liotta" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 8:52 AM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Netflix
Tom DeReggi wrote:
And what message would that send? Did you expect Cogent to jsut take it
in the chin, and accept the fate LEvel3 dictated?
I disagree.
This was a peering contract dispute. I imagine Level3 was within their
rights to cancel the contract otherwise we would have seen a lawsuit. If
you read this peering contracts it is quite specific as to the rules of
the game. They state that the peering relationship can be terminated for
not satisfying the requirements of the peering policy. In Cogent's case,
that is almost always the ratio requirement.
Level3 could have bandwidth limited Cogent, instead of depeering Cogent.
That would have put Level3 in default of the peering contract most likely.
At least, when we enter into peering contract the speed is specified.
Cogent did what they had to do. The message was loud and clear, and
successful. That Cogent would not accept being bullied.
I don't think it was. Folks that were single-homed lost business and
learned not to rely on Cogent. The folks who had learned that lesson the
last time around felt satisfied with their anti-Cogent bias. Level3 got
Cogent to do what they wanted.
Ultimately, today Cogent's peering is worse than it was before the Level3
dispute.
-Matt
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