Oppose more ISP fees

[Howard C. Berkowitz]

>To INTERNIC representatives:
>
>Regarding - proposed additional fees for registration of ISP's
>
>>From    Rol Murrow  Chairman, Air Care Alliance
>                    President, EVAC
>                    Northeastern Representative, AOPA
>
>I am providing my own comments regarding proposed fees to be charged ISP's as
>suggested by NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
>
>Additional fees are unnecessary and completely contrary to the interests of
>the public in expanding public access through the internet.  I am involved
>with more than thirty struggling volunteer-based public service
>organizations, most of which already find the domain name registration costs
>to be excessive.  In effect, high costs prevent them from developing public
>exposure on the internet, to the great detriment of the public in learning
>about such valuable services.

Could you clarify this a bit?  Are you saying that the additional fees are
unnecessary because the function is adequately funded through other means,
or that fees are detrimental to the functioning of certain organizations
that contribute to the common good?

If the former, are there proposed functions that you consider not needed,
thus reducing costs on which fees should be set?

If the latter, where do you believe the funding should come from?  Perhaps
a tax on for-profit Internet users?  From specific governent funding>

>
>In addition, we are at a critical stage when large entities are moving to
>dominate access to the internet.  Hefty ISP fees would discourage competition
>and experimentation on the part of small independent internet service
>providers.  The costs would be passed on to their customers, and being
>divided among a smaller number of customers would result in higher
>per-customer charges - a real disincentive to experimentation and the
>encouragement of new businesses providing internet access.

Could you define what you mean by "small?"  Does a small provider, during
its experimental phase, need provider-independent address space?  I tend to
have a concern that many small providers cannot justify the technical
expertise that lets them reliably participate in multihomed BGP routing.
>
>Please do whatever you can to prevent any such deleterious prising schemes,
>and act to reduce the existing fee structure.  It is both in the interest of
>the public and the many small organizations providing public service.
>
>   Rol Murrow