I was told recently that the MSAP (Multimedia Services Access Point) was outdated and no longer needed. The MSAP is a public peering point that we pioneered in Blacksburg in 1999. It is still in operation today, and vastly improves network performance within the community.
The MSAP is just a network data exchange point, which is old as the Internet. But what was new and different about what we did in Blacksburg was the concept that communities and regions needed to provide public peering points--for a whole variety of reasons, most related to lower costs for bandwidth and greatly improved quality of service for things like voice and video services.
But another reason is to make sure private interests don't have monopoly control over the network, as illustrated perfectly in this item.
Briefly put, two major backbone Internet providers (Cogent and Level 3) are squabbling and Level 3 has stopped allowing Cogent's traffic to cross its network. This means, in some cases, that you cannot send IP traffic from here to there. Sites lose traffic, businesses are affected, and performance is degraded. And businesses in affected communities can't do a thing about it.
Public peering points like MSAPs and RNAPs (Regional Network Access Points) won't stop the squabbles, but they can help mitigate the effects, and give communities and regions some control over their destiny.
Put another way, imagine if all roads out of your community were private toll roads that could be shut down at any time by a private company? Would that be good for business? Would it be good for the community? Would it help attract business and industry?
The answer, of course, is an emphatic no. But that is exactly the situation we have today with the Internet. As the Internet becomes more and more important to commerce, governance, and daily life, communities and regions cannot keep ignoring these issues.