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The Evolution Of Internet Service Providers From Partners To Adversaries: Tracking Shifts In Interconnection Goals And Strategies In The Internet’S Fifth Generation, Rob Frieden Jan 2015

The Evolution Of Internet Service Providers From Partners To Adversaries: Tracking Shifts In Interconnection Goals And Strategies In The Internet’S Fifth Generation, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

This paper will examine new models for the carriage of Internet traffic with an eye toward providing insights on how the interconnection process has changed and what positive and negative consequences have resulted. Internet Service Provider (“ISP”) interconnection used to constitute a cooperative undertaking, but now it increasingly requires difficult and protracted negotiations between ventures that consider themselves adversaries in a winner take all transaction. The paper concludes that new commercial arrangements, such as paid peering, can achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. However, the paper also identifies instances where migration from traditional interconnection arrangements can harm consumers by reducing some of …


What’S New In The Network Neutrality Debate, Rob Frieden Sep 2014

What’S New In The Network Neutrality Debate, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

For over ten years, academics, practitioners, policy makers, consumers and other stakeholders have debated whether and how governments should regulate the Internet with an eye toward promoting accessibility, affordability and neutrality. This issue has triggered grave concerns about the Internet’s ability to continue generating substantial and widespread benefits. Advocates for various outcomes have vastly different assessments about many baseline subjects including the viability of sustainable competition and self-regulation. Consumers become agitated and confused by different framing of the issues, particularly when participants in the Internet ecosystem cannot reach closure on interconnection and compensation issues. Increasingly these disputes trigger temporary degradation …


New Models And Conflicts In The Interconnection And Delivery, Rob Frieden Jan 2014

New Models And Conflicts In The Interconnection And Delivery, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

As the Internet has evolved and diversified, interconnection terms and conditions have changed between Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”). These carriers experiment with alternatives to conventional models that classify interconnection as either peering or transiting. The former typically involves interconnection between high capacity carriers whose transoceanic traffic volumes generally match thereby eliminating the need for a transfer of funds. Historically smaller carriers have paid transit fees to larger Tier-1 ISPs for the opportunity to secure upstream links throughout the Internet cloud. With the growing availability of bandwidth intensive, video content carried via the Internet, traffic volume disparities have increased between ISPs. …


Net Bias And The Treatment Of “Mission-Critical” Bits, Rob Frieden Jan 2014

Net Bias And The Treatment Of “Mission-Critical” Bits, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

The Internet increasingly provides an alternative distribution medium for video and other types of high value, bandwidth intensive content. Many consumers have become “technology agnostic” about what kind of wireline or wireless medium provides service. However, they expect carriers to offer access anytime, anywhere, via any device and in any distribution format. These early adopters of new technologies and alternatives to “legacy” media have no patience with the concept of “appointment television” that limits access to a specific time, on a particular channel and in a single presentation format. This paper assesses whether and how Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) can …


The Mixed Blessing Of A Deregulatory Endpoint For The Public Switched Telephone Network, Rob Frieden Mar 2012

The Mixed Blessing Of A Deregulatory Endpoint For The Public Switched Telephone Network, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

Receiving authority to dismantle the wireline public switched telephone network (“PSTN”) will deliver a mixture of financial benefits and costs to incumbent carriers. Even if these carriers continue to provide basic telephone services via wireless facilities, they will benefit from substantial relaxation of common carriage duties, no longer having to serve as the carrier of last resort and having the opportunity to decide whether and where to provide service. On the other hand, incumbent carriers may have underestimated the substantial financial and marketplace advantages they also will likely lose in the deregulatory process. This paper will identify the potential problems …


Rationales For And Against Regulatory Involvement In Resolving Internet Interconnection Disputes, Rob Frieden Oct 2011

Rationales For And Against Regulatory Involvement In Resolving Internet Interconnection Disputes, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) provide end users with access to and from the Internet cloud. In addition to providing the first and last mile carriage of traffic, ISPs secure upstream access to sources of content telecommunications carriers typically a paid (transit), or barter (peering) basis. Because a single ISP operates in two separate segments of traffic routing, the terms and conditions of network interconnection and the degree of marketplace competition can vary greatly. In this double-sided market, ISPs typically have many transit and peering opportunities upstream to content providers, but downstream end users may have a limited choice of ISP …


Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden Jul 2011

Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden

Rob Frieden

Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) provide end users with access to and from the Internet cloud. In addition to providing the first and last mile carriage of traffic, ISPs secure upstream access to sources of content via other ISPs typically on a paid (transit), or barter (peering) basis. Because a single ISP operates in two separate segments of traffic routing, both the terms and conditions of network interconnection and the degree of marketplace competition can vary greatly. In this double-sided market, ISPs typically have many transit and peering opportunities upstream to content providers, but downstream end users may have a limited …


Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden Jul 2011

Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden

Rob Frieden

Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) provide end users with access to and from the Internet cloud. In addition to providing the first and last mile carriage of traffic, ISPs secure upstream access to sources of content via other ISPs typically on a paid (transit), or barter (peering) basis. Because a single ISP operates in two separate segments of traffic routing, both the terms and conditions of network interconnection and the degree of marketplace competition can vary greatly. In this double-sided market, ISPs typically have many transit and peering opportunities upstream to content providers, but downstream end users may have a limited …