Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!NOTE.NSF.GOV!steve
From: steve@NOTE.NSF.GOV (Stephen Wolff)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Remote database services ???
Message-ID: <8909251322.aa12998@note.nsf.gov>
Date: 25 Sep 89 17:22:49 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 34


>>hosts that need this kind of bandwidth).  It is the hope of the
>>NREN sponsors that the system will eventually be feasible as a
>>commercial offering and that direct government involvement in its
>>operation can be minimized and perhaps completely eliminated.
>
>Wonder how long until the Internet turns into a commercial common carrier?

Large chunks of the Internet are already commercial.  Mid-level (e.g.,
regional) networks in the NSFNET family are independent business entities
which however receive Federal subsidy in two forms: annual awards (ranging in
amount from almost none to "some") from the Networking Division at NSF, and
no-direct-charge use of the NSFNET backbone network for long-haul transit.

The NSFNET Backbone is in turn operated by a commercial organization which is
fully subsidized - in part by NSF but mostly by private industry.

Beyond their subsidy, the mid-level nets get income by charging their client
campus networks for services rendered.  (Just as in the case of Plain Old
Telephone Service, the campus is ordinarily the smallest billable unit.)

The technical problem for the Federal government is how to move the subsidies
which are now given to the SUPPLIERS of networking services, instead to the
USERS of networking through the standard mechanisms of research grants and
contracts and increments on the indirect cost rate - all without damaging,
diminishing or interrupting the service to the research and scholarly
communities.

Over the course of the coming year, NSF - in its role as lead agency for
implementing the Phase 1+2 NREN - will collaborate with the nascent NREN
management and advisory groups in holding public discussions of this
important topic.  Stay tuned.

-s