Hello Michael, my regard for the genre of ITSP Newco's such as the one you mentioned, runs high on several different levels. This stems in part from my firm's having designed a similar network schema for a prospective ITSP carrier operator a couple of years ago, before the equipment operators could satisfy many of the generic requirements that I specified. See the VoIP thread here in SI circa October 1997 plus or minus three months, for a sampling of the issues we grappled with.
Our own variant of an ITSP Newco was very much fashioned along the protocols and business modeling of ITXC, prior to hearing of them, perhaps with a mix of Globix, Above.net and MFNX, combined. A neutral high-capacity optical node was specified for urban pops at that time, and again, the optical gear also was not ready for prime time. It barely is, now, almost three years later.
In the midst of that design effort I recall hearing a 45 minute talk by Tom Evslin of ITXC on RealNetworks when he decided to leave AT&T. I still regard his speech as a seminal moment in the history of this industry. It galvanized, in my mind, many of the principles we had deduced, earlier. In other words, if offered validation by a recognized other.
ITXC, GRIC... and some lesser known outfits whose networks are high in integrity in this class, I see them as potential future takeouts by incumbents and others who will need an emergency bootstrap kit at some point, once they finally get over the anguish caused by the perils of denial.
Regards, Frank Coluccio |
