One more thing. To respond to the question of international impact, I
would think that the main impact will be in leading-by-example and
impact-on-industry terms.
I don't imagine it will have too direct an impact on Internet provision
in other countries. Backbone connectivity is unlikely to be affected, I
should think. Much Web content and other applications content is hosted
in the U.S. but that's, again, backbone stuff -- the access providers in
other countries are, well, in other countries.
On the other hand, elaborate tie-ups between commercial logical- and
applications-layer enterprises that extend into packet-level
discrimination are just not that common. Their level of acceptance in
the U.S. environment, business models that get spun around them, and
governance response that shape how it all happens -- or doesn't -- will
be watched closely and perhaps emulated or resisted.
Content providers who won packet-preferencing deals in the U.S., if that
catches on, would certainly take their model contracts and try to
negotiate similar things with large providers in other jurisdictions. So
folks in other jurisdictions will be thinking about this, too.
cheers
Bram
