ISP/Telecom/NIC Representation in gTLD-MoU

[avc@netnamesusa.com (Antony Van Couvering)]

Jim,

The ISP support and representation on POC is a tangled skein, not clear-cut
at all, as you have implied.  The iPOC has been very keen to include ISPs
into the POC itself, being as it is sensitive to this and other useful
ideas, but the has been that it was tough to find anyone group that could
claim to represent ISPs.

CIX does not enjoy universal support by any means -- Boardwatch Magazine
estimates at least 4000 ISPs in the U.S., so by your own method of
measuring support that means only 4.25% support CIX, despite its long
existence. I have spoken to European ISPs, and ISP organizations, that are
very reluctant to join EuroISPA too.  There are many ISP organizations, and
most ISPs, as you have pointed out before, are pretty much apolitical --
they just want things to work.  It's disingenuous, then, to imply that the
way was clear, but that iPOC bolted the door.  Far from it.  Add to that
the fact that the CIX and NSI leaders are very very cosy, and you have a
rather more complicated scenario.

As to the actual number of ISPs that have signed the gTLD-MoU, this
information, which you could bother to consult, is at
http://www3.itu.int/net-itu/gtld-mou/simple.htm .

The ISPs -- those providing at least dial-up or leased-line Internet
Access, including ISP Associations, e.g. iPASS, but not including web
hosting services and the like, which would expand the list considerably --
are:

Alinet (Italy)
AMC (Albania)
American Internet Corporation (USA)
ANPROTEL (Spain)
Indonesia Internet Service Provider Association (Indonesia)
ASUSA (USA)
Bell Canada (Canada)
CAL Institute Corporation (USA)
Calgary Online, Inc. (Canada)
Canada Internet Direct (Canada)
Charm Net, Inc. (USA)
Xarxa CINET, S.L. (Spain)
DACOM Corporation  (Korea)
DIGEX (USA)
Dokumenta / Maxdat Group (Germany)
Dana Point Communications (USA)
Ebone (Denmark)
France Telecom (France)
Global Online Japan (Japan)
Inet, Inc. (Korea)
Internet Gateway Corporation (Canada)
Internet KSC Co., Ltd. (Thailand)
Internet-Way (France)
iPass (USA)
I.P.F. Net - Internet Service Provider GmbH (Germany)
It Comunicación (Spain)
Ji Tong Communications Co., Ltd. (China)
Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co., Ltd (KDD) (Japan)
LanMinds (USA)
MagicNet (USA)
MCI Communications (USA)
Melbourne Information Technologies Australia PTY LTD (Australia)
Midwest Group (China)
Mindspring Enterprises (USA)
Network Computer System (Ghana)
OneGlobe.net (USA)
OuterNet Connection Strategies, Inc. (USA)
Rebel Net (UK)
SERVICOM (Spain)
Tele2 AB (Sweden)
Telecom Italia (Italy)
Telefónica del Perú (Peru)
TELESUR (Suriname)
Telia AB (Sweden)
Telstra (Australia)
TOTAL = 44, or 24% of all gTLD-MoU signatories

NICs
APNIC - Asia-Pacific
ASNIC - American Samoa
CNNIC - P.R. China
Guernsey Network Information Center - Guernsey
JPNIC - Japan
Jersey Network Information Center - Jersey
KRNIC - Korea
Melbourne IT - Australia
NIC-Mexico - Mexico
RomNIC - Romania
SWITCH - Switzerland, Liechtenstein
SYSTEL - Guadeloupe, Martinique
UNINETT - Norway
TOTAL = 13, or 5% of all possible NICs (not all of them are up)

National or Huge Telecoms (Some repetition from ISP List)
Albanian Dept. of Posts and Telecommunications (Albania)

Bell Canada (Canada)
Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (Botswana)
France Telecom (France)
MCI Communications (USA)
SYSTEL (French Caribbean)
Telecom Italia (Italy)
Telefónica del Perú (Peru)
TELESUR (Suriname)
Telia (Sweden)
Telstra (Australia)
TOTAL = 10 (12 if you include Deutsche Telekom and the Dutch Telecom, who
are CORE member but not, apparently, signatories to the gLTD-MoU).  I don't
have the exact count, but there are fewer big or national Telecoms than
there are NICs, so the proportion here is even greater.

The gTLD-MoU movement has a larger support among big telecoms than CIX does
among American ISPs; a larger support of national NICs that CIX does among
American ISPs.  And CIX has only 6 times the support of U.S. ISPs as the
gTLD-MoU movement does among all ISPs worldwide, after having been around a
long time and being very well known!

Now you can go through my lists and say, "Oh, ha ha, Albania" or "Who the
hell is X", but the fact is that any membership list is not full of only
the top companies.  In fact, the list is probably larger.  I included only
those companies on my ISP list whose web sites actually offer dial-up or
leased-line service, or were ISP associations.

The fact that close to a quarter of the signatories to the gTLD-MoU fit a
very close definition of an ISP should, I hope, put a stop to your canard
about ISPs not having a voice in the gTLD-MoU process.

But hope springs eternal, does it not?

Antony


At 09:02 PM 11/30/97 +0000, Jim Dixon wrote:
>On Sun, 30 Nov 1997, Dan Busarow wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 30 Nov 1997, Jim Dixon wrote:
>> > Every ISP organisation in the world was asked to give their support to
>
>Perhaps I wasn't clear enough.  I meant "organization of ISPs".  
>ISPA UK, for example, is an association of ISPs in the UK; EuroISPA
>is an umbrella organization, a grouping of the Internet trade
>associations of Europe with 500 or so members.  The US equivalent
>is the CIX, with 170 or so members.  
>
>> > the gTLD MOU. I know of none that has done so.
>> ...
>> The following ISPs have signed the MoU and are also members of the
>> Policy Advisory Body
>> 
>> 	Digex
>> 	MCI
>> 	Mindspring
>> 	UUNet
>
>Yes.  That's 4 out of 6,000 or so.  A healthy 0.07%.
>
>> plus
>> 
>> 	APNIC
>> 	JPNIC
>> 	NIC-Mexico
>
>I can't comment on these; but in general the NICs are technical 
>organizations without a policy mandate from their members.
> 
>> There are probably European and Asian ISPs who are well known in
>> their regions but I don't recognize and have left out.
>> 
>> These are from a membership list that is about 4 months old.  I'm
>> pretty sure there are others, and the list only includes those who
>> chose to also participate in PAB.  Unfortunately the signatory
>> links on the gTLD-MoU website are broken at the moment so I
>> can't give you more current information.
>
>At the meeting in Brussels last week the POC's representatives 
>bragged about having 180 signatories.  While this is a 20% improvement

>over the last few months, it is still insignificant by any reasonable
>standard.  A 20% improvement on 0.07% gets you to ... 0.08% :-)
>
>--
>Jim Dixon                                                 Managing Director
>VBCnet GB Ltd                http://www.vbc.net        tel +44 117 929 1316
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>