Cook’s Collaborative Edge

This morning on Cybertelecom Erik Cecil wrote:

Now that the IXCs of the world are gone, ILECs are nothing but giant
transit providers. So they have to come up with a new theory of “cost
causation” b/c there’s no more IXCs (or CLECs) to fleece. But they’ve
been hard at work in their regulatory research labs. Well, it turns out
that there is legal precedent for the new regime. It is known as TPPM:
“Transiting Packets Pay … Me.” Forget directionality and distance; it
doesn’t matter. What does matter is getting paid for an artificially
scarce resource. And their approach is very neutral. They charge
everyone. Equally. That’s why the FCC came up with “equal access” in
the first place. ILECs get equal access to everyone’s wallet.

So the sooner we can tie intercarrier compensation to IP addresses in
the same way we linked compensation to addressing mechanisms on TDM
networks (these are known to most as phone numbers - which correspond to
switch locations), the sooner we can condemn Google and everyone else to
30 years of internecine you-bet-your-company litigation. The timing is
perfect because there are a bunch of us telecom lawyers who need to put
our kids through college.

So, let’s quit this silly talk of irreconcilable contradictions and
regulatory mayhem. There is simply a crying need for extensive,
protracted litigation where the fortunes of the nation’s innovators can
be made or lost for reasons having nothing to do with rational economics
or sound public policy.

We’ve done very well with this model. I see no reason to change it. To
arms, lawyers!! File your suits. Release the hounds!

Regulators — run for cover. Try not to make up your minds at all. If
you absolutely have to say something, by all means EQUIVOCATE! It suits
us lawyers just fine.

Erik Cecil

Cook’s Edge: Yep. Another slice at what the net neutrality Smoke and Mirrors are all about. Erik is the best writer ofimages and metaphors I have seen since Dave Hughes.

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