FW: Start ISPs as Registries

[Jim Fleming]

----------
From: 	Jim Fleming[SMTP:JimFleming at unety.net.]
Sent: 	Tuesday, February 25, 1997 1:55 PM
To: 	'Avi Freedman'; jgonz at ibernet.es
Cc: 	'ckuehn at nsf.gov'; 'gstrawn at nsf.gov'; 'lsundro at nsf.gov'; nanog at merit.edu
Subject: 	Start ISPs as Registries

On Tuesday, February 25, 1997 2:06 AM, Avi Freedman[SMTP:freedman at netaxs.com] wrote:
@ > 	But now we are receiving many petitions from much smaller ISP's
@ > asking for BGP connections. These small customers are going to announce
@ > few networks (a couple of /24, or some /23). We have no problems to
@ > configure our routers with more BGP peerings, as our routers can support
@ > it, but I'm a little bit concerned about the impact of such small
@ > announcements to the whole Internet.
@ 
@ I think the general feeling is that if the customer is multi-homed, there's
@ going to be another route announcement for them anyway - whether it's a 
@ /23, /24, or /16 or /17.
@ 

In my opinion, ISPs start at the wrong end of the business.
We should try to encourage future ISPs to start as registries
BEFORE they buy a lot of modems, routers and other stuff.

If the airlines ran like the Internet, they would encourage
pilots to buy their own planes, to transport customers, and
after getting enough hours, they would teach them about
air traffic control, navigation, weather, radios, etc.

Because there has been a lack of emphasis on growing
the IP address registries, and domain registries by the
InterNIC, people do not get an opportunity to train in those
important functions first, before jumping into the cockpit.

As a net result of this, it is hard to find ISPs who are
growing into the registry business. I suppose some ISPs
do not see that there is any money in that end of the
business. I also feel that there is a lack of education
in this critical area.

If NANOG members have any influence on the direction
the Internet takes, I suggest that they help new ISPs
first learn the registry end of the business. One way to
do this is to help establish IP address registries in your
area and the training programs needed to allow people
to handle allocations as skilled professionals.

There is not much capital required to launch someone
as a registry, compared to the capital required to be
an ISP. The key ingredient needed is education and
NANOG seems like a natural group to help people
get started.

With the various charging models coming out of
the ARIN discussions <http://www.arin.net>, there
should be a lot of food for thought on how a few
people in an office with some PCs, paper, pencils
and telephones can become registries and support
themselves.

Once established as a registry, these skilled
professionals could grow and branch out to add
other services. Who knows, they could even
become ISPs, and if they do, then they would
have a firm foundation of registry training to
support their growth and to better serve the
Internet


--
Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation

e-mail:
JimFleming at unety.net
JimFleming at unety.s0.g0 (EDNS/IPv8)