from Dave Farber's list: Ireland to regulate peering

[Steve Bellovin <smb () research att com>]

(apologies if this appears twice)


> From: Alex French <alex () evilal com>
> Subject: Ireland to regulate peering

....

> In brief: New rules being put in place by the Irish telecoms regulator 
> will regulate IP peering between ISPs as if it were a voice interconnect. 
> I'd love to hear from any other IPers who know if this is being proposed 
> anywhere else in Europe. As far as I know, this is unprecedented.
>
> The Irish telecoms regulator (ComReg) has announced a new set of licensing 
> rules for telcos. The bad part is that the rules have been greatly 
> expanded to include regulation of "all electronic communications 
> networks", including (apparently) ISP networks and VPN operators.
>
> ComReg is planning to apply the principles of voice interconnect to all 
> network types; this means that "operators of public communications 
> networks shall have a right, and when requested by other [operators], an 
> obligation to negotiate interconnection with each other for the purpose of 
> providing publicly available electronic communications services." In 
> effect, IP networks will have to peer with each other on request.
>
> Even worse, the "interconnect" (i.e. peering) prices will be subject to 
> review by the Irish regulator if either party feels that they're not being 
> offered a fair deal.
>
> The cherry on the cake is that ISPs can be designated as having 
> "Significant Market Power" (this used to be defined as having 25% of a 
> market, but the criteria are now more nebulous). If you have SMP, you must 
> publish your network cost accounting as prove that the peering prices you 
> charge are cost-oriented (cost + a reasonable ROI)
>
> As I see it, this will lead to the collapse of the current peering/transit 
> negotiation process that ISPs have successfully used all over the world 
> for years. I don't even see how this would benefit smaller ISPs, since the 
> new rules are likely to discourage larger companies from entering this 
> market at all. At the very least, the regulation of peering rates has got 
> to hurt competition.
>
> The relevant documents are available at http://www.comreg.ie. Specific 
> links are
>
> http://www.comreg.ie/whats_new/default.asp?ctype=5&nid=101003
> http://www.comreg.ie/whats_new/default.asp?ctype=5&nid=100998

                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb (me)
                http://www.wilyhacker.com (2nd edition of "Firewalls" book)