I have some very specific thoughts on the recent public spat between Level3 and Cogent. Much of what I think and know was said on the Friday KenRadio World Technology Roundup.
Basically I’ll outline them here and then update with links later.
1. Cogent took a page out of the Crisis Management 101 playbook in going to the media first. They wanted to get the upper hand in news positioning, and in effect put Level3 in a position to look bad. For media who don’t understand how peering works they bought into the “our poor customers are now stranded” story and initially painted Level3 in a less than favorable light.
2. Those who know how peering works (like me-refer to KenRadio broadcast of yesterday) were not sucked into the Cogent strategy.
3. Later in the day Level3 issued a statement that accomplished a few things:
A. They restored connectivity
B. Are telling the world that if Cogent and they can agree on terms then nothing
interrupted.
C. Are saying no more free rides to those who don’t or can’t reciprocate
D. Explaining to those less than informed how peering works and why they had to
do what they did
In my opinion Level3 reacted professionally and in a forthright manner. The free ride days of Internet are over. This is the first, and not the last type of effort I expect to see.
How does this effect VoIP? Well if you’re not on a managed network or with a carrier whose network partners are on a managed network there could be some irritations. Since there are many ways around Level3 that can be used by Cogent, the problem should not be significant, but if Cogent’s other peering relationships do the same thing then, there may be some problems.