RE: Provider credibility - does it matter? was Re: Inter-provider relations

[Hank Nussbacher <hank () ibm net il>]

On Thu, 24 Oct 1996 18:26:12 -0400 (EDT)  Gordon Cook wrote:
> Cook: six global providers: Hmmm. Might they be referring to Sprint, AGIS
> UUNET, PSI, MCI, and ANS? The so called gang or club of six that a year
> ago were the exclusive direct peers at all the major exchanges? If they
> are, then, by process of elimnation, BBN is not a global provider -which I
> think is news to BBN, nor is AT&T, nor is Advantis, nor is Compuserve, nor
> are a lot of other major players with more than a fresh12.5 million behind
> them.   Gee. I wonder if BBN realizes that AGIS has relegated it to second
> rank status?
>
> Or perhaps they are referring to those global providers who are beginning
> to move most of their traffic through private inter connects - and in so
> doing are becoming a new internet apex? In this case they are not even one
> of the five let alone six. Here the five are MCI, Sprint, BBN, UUNET and
> ANS. I have been talking to a lot of sources, none of which is aware of
> AGIS having any private Interconnects with these five.

When talking of global Internet reach, the largest is IBM/Advantis IGN. 
They have 830 POPs in over 50 countries and peerings at about 15 major
interconnect points.  For details see:

http://www.ibm.com/globalnetwork/inetbbon.htm

Probably the best kept secret in the Internet world.

Hank Nussbacher
IBM Israel

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