Competition for address allocation

[Tim Bass]

It appears the gentlemen are having some difficulty understanding
the concept of competitiveness in telecommunications, or, maybe
they are content inventing their personal interpretations!

Competitiveness *does not* translate to competing for IP address
space, as the industry defines it.  (and the RF spectrum paradigm
does not hold as an analogy.... thats an exercise for the
interested reader to do off line, after reading Freiden).

Here is a passage from Friden's book, re: pro-competitive environs:

\begin{quote}

``The greatest degree of negotiating clout will lie with users
 who generate large traffic volumes and can migrate to other
suppliers \ldots''  \cite{F95}

\end{quote}

Frieden \cite{F95} cites numerous tactics in networking
and telecommunications services markets which are considered 
anticompetitive and a subset of these tactics may be directly applicable to
bilateral IP internetworking;

\begin{itemize}
\item   refusal to grant an operating agreement,
\item   discriminatory network access,
\item   impediments to network usage, and
\item   discriminatory prices or special relationships.
\end{itemize}


Furthermore:

\begin{quote}

'While international telecommunications can ``contribute to world
peace and understanding'', it primarily constitutes an industry
with enterprises vying for billions of dollars in annual revenues.'
\cite{F95}

\end{quote}

According to telecommunications studies \cite{F95} the
future consumer of networking services will demand the
ability to move their networks anywhere in the world
easily and quickly.  Consumers will require the ability to
change service providers immediately and upon demand .
Likewise, service provides will demand the same ability,
to change their upstream service providers quickly and
effectively with little or no impact to their established customer
base.

And finally:

\begin{quote}

``Antitrust is intended to protect the competitive process
 from \ldots collusive interference \ldots'' \cite{K94}

\end{quote}

\bibitem{F95} Frieden, R.,
\newblock {\em International Telecommunications Handbook}, 
\newblock Artech House, Boston, MA, 1995.

\bibitem{K94} Kennedy, C.,
{\em An Introduction to U.S. Telecommunications Law}, 
\newblock Artech House, Boston, MA, 1994.

----------------

It would be quite good if some of the  more opinionated NAIPR posters 
would broaden their reading list beyond RFCs and email lists.  The
history of competitiveness in US and international telecommunications
is quite well documented.   There is little reason for the gentlemen
to conjecture on what is competitiveness when Freiden has done
such an excellent job.

Regards,

Tim