Re: Is the MIXP a white elephant?

From: S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com>
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2015 23:44:38 -0700

Hi Daniel, Logan,
At 00:08 24-10-2015, Daniel Shaw wrote:
>You cannot and should not try to *force* anything on any ISP. Not
>only is it going to fail, it's not the sort of thing that makes for
>an open democratic capitalist business environment, which is what
>you want if you want to attract more competition, which is
>ultimately what you want to keep prices down and service up.

I assume that both of you have read the local laws to find out
whether it is possible to force an ISP to do something. It is better
not to force an ISP to do something, i.e. leave it to
competition. If there are unfair practices, the government can force
an ISP to take corrective measures.

What does "open" or "democratic" have to do with MIXP or ISPs in Mauritius?

>ISP do not always understand the finacial insentives that are almost
>always there for them when they peer. So the best action is to,
>where possible, point this out clearly. If the incentives are there,
>the ISPs will follow - that is business sense.
>
>However, you also need to understand and accept that in some cases
>there are other incentives you may not be aware of, and as such some
>networks may never peer, no matter what their customers say, and not
>matter how "good" of an IXP they have access to. This is reality in
>the business of running ISP networks. I am not saying that is the
>case here in Mauritius. At least as far as I know it's not. But then
>I don't work for any of the ISPs.
>
>So, if ISP X and ISP Y don't see a financial incentive to peer
>(whether that is valid or not) how do you change that. You get folks
>to vote with their feet. Take the business elsewhere.

I heard the "take the business elsewhere" argument in discussions
involving people from the North America. If the choice is restricted
to one network provider only, can a business take its business
elsewhere? I do not think so.

There following is from the Ministry of Information and Communication
Technology:
http://mtci.govmu.org/English/Documents/speeches-2014/25.08.14%20IXP%20speech.pdf

   "The primary purpose of the Internet Exchange Point is to allow networks to
    interconnect directly, via the exchange, rather than through one or more
    third party networks. Multiple Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can
    connect at a single IXP, creating the potential for a range of technical
    and economic benefits for the local Internet community."

   "iii. local links will be up to 10 times faster because of the
         reduced latency in traffic, which makes fewer hops to get
         to its destination; and"

People in Mauritius will expect local links to be up to ten times faster.

   "The desired outcome of the workshop is to develop a pool of engineers that
    understand the technical aspects of local interconnections and capable of
    maintaining the day-to-day operation of the IXP."

Is there a pool of engineers who are capable of maintaining the
day-to-day operation of MIXP? If the answer is no, it would mean
that the desired outcome of the workshop has not been achieved.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy
Received on Sun Oct 25 2015 - 06:48:11 PST

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