Internet Pricing Controls: ltr to NSF
On May 7, 1994, Jamie Love of Taxpayer Assistance Project wrote:
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>TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
>May 7, 1994
>- Request for signatures for a letter to NSF opposing metered
> pricing of Internet usage
>The letter will be sent to Steve Wolff, the Director of
>Networking and Communications for NSF. The purpose of the letter
>is to express a number of user concerns about the future of
>Internet pricing. NSF recently announced that is awarding five
>key contracts to telephone companies to operate four Internet
>"Network Access Points" (NAPs), and an NSF funded very high speed
>backbone (vBNS). There have been a number of indications that
>the telephone companies operating the NAPs will seek permission
>from NSF to price NAPs services according to some measure of
>Internet usage. The vBNS is expected to act as a testbed for new
>Internet pricing and accounting schemes. The letter expresses
>the view that metered pricing of Internet usage should be
>avoided, and that NSF should ensure that the free flow of
>information through Internet listserves and file server sites is
>preserved and enhanced.
>jamie love, Taxpayer Assets Project (love@essential.org; but
> unable to answer mail until May 15). Until then, direct
> inquires to Michael Ward.
>If you are willing to sign the letter, send the following
> information to Mike Ward of the Taxpayer Assets Project
> (mike@essential.org, fax: 202/234-5176; voice: 202/387-8030;
> P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036):
>Names: ___________________________
>Title: ___________________________ (Optional)
>Affiliation: ____________________________________
>(for purposes of identification only)
>Address: ______________________________________
>City; St, Zip ________________________________
>Email Address: _____________________________________
>Voice: __________________________________
>for verification)
the letter follows:
>Steve Wolff
>Director
>Division of Networking and Communications
>National Science Foundation
>1800 G Street
>Washington, DC 20550
>Dear Steve:
>It is our understanding that the National Science Foundation
>(NSF) and other federal agencies are developing a new
>architecture for the Internet that will utilize four new Network
>Access Points (NAPs), which have been described as the new
>"cloverleaves" for the Internet. You have indicated that NSF is
>awarding contracts for four NAPs, which will be operated by
>telephone companies (Pac Bell, S.F.; Ameritech, Chicago; Sprint,
>NY; and MFS, Washington, DC). We further understand that NSF has
>selected MCI to operate its new very high speed backbone (vBNS)
>facility.
>There is broad public interest in the outcome of the negotiations
>between NSF and the companies that will operate the NAPs and
>vBNS. We are writing to ask that NSF consider the following
>objectives in its negotiations with these five firms:>
> PRICING.
>We are concerned about the future pricing systems for Internet
>access and usage. Many users pay fixed rates for Internet
>connections, often based upon the bandwidth of the connection,
>and do not pay for network usage, such as the transfer of data
>using email, ftp, Gopher or Mosaic. It has been widely reported
>on certain Internet discussion groups, such as com-priv, that the
>operators of the NAPs are contemplating a system of usage based
>pricing.
>We are very concerned about any movement toward usage based
>pricing on the Internet, and we are particularly concerned about
>the future of the Internet Listserves, which allow broad
>democratic discourse on a wide range of issues. We believe that
>the continued existence and enhancement of the Internet
>discussion groups and distribution lists is so important that any
>pricing scheme for the NAPs that would endanger or restrict their
>use should be rejected by the NSF.
>It is important for NSF to recognize that the Internet is more
>than a network for scientific researchers or commercial
>transactions. It represents the most important new effort to
>expand democracy into a wide range of human endeavors. The open
>communication and the free flow of information have make
>government and private organizations more accountable, and
>allowed citizens to organize and debate the widest range of matters.
>Federal policy should be directed at expanding public
>access to the Internet, and it should reject efforts to introduce
>pricing schemes for Internet usage that would mimic commercial
>telephone networks or expensive private network services such as
>MCI mail.
>To put this into perspective, NSF officials must consider how any
>pricing mechanisms will change the economics of hosting an
>Internet electronic mail discussion groups and distribution
>lists. Many of these discussion groups and lists are very large,
>such as Humanist, GIS-L, CNI-Copyright, PACS-L, CPSR-Announce or
>Com-Priv. It is not unusual for a popular Internet discussion
>group to have several thousand members, and send out more than
>100,000 email messages per day. These discussion groups and
>distribution lists are the backbones of democratic discourse on
>the Internet, and it is doubtful that they would survive if
>metered pricing of electronic mail is introduced on the Internet.
>Usage based pricing would also introduce a wide range of problems
>regarding the use of ftp, gopher and mosaic servers, since it
>conceivable that the persons who provide "free" information on
>servers would be asked to pay the costs of "sending" data to
>persons who request data. This would vastly increase the costs
>of operating a server site, and would likely eliminate many
>sources of data now "published" for free.
>We are also concerned about the types of accounting mechanisms
>which may be developed or deployed to facilitate usage based
>pricing schemes., which raise a number of concerns about personal
>privacy. Few Internet users are anxious to see a new system of
>"surveillance" that will allow the government or private data
>vendors to monitor and track individual usage of Information
>obtained from Internet listserves or fileserves.
> ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICES
> We are also concerned about the potential for anti-
>competitive behavior by the firms that operate the NAPs. Since
>1991 there have been a number of criticisms of ANS pricing
>practices, and concerns about issues such as price discrimination
>or preferential treatment are likely to become more important as
>the firms operating the NAPs become competitors of firms that must >connect
to the NAPs. We are particularly concerned about
>the announcements by PAC-Bell and Ameritech that they will enter
>the retail market for Internet services, since both firms were
>selected by NSF to operate NAPs. It is essential that the
>contracts signed by NSF include the strongest possible measures
>to insure that the operators of the NAPs do not unfairly
>discriminate against unaffiliated companies.
>Recommendations:
>As the Internet moves from the realm of the research community to
>a more vital part of the nation's information infrastructure, the
>NSF must ensure that its decisions reflect the needs and values
>of a much larger community.
>1. The NSF contracts with the NAPs operators will include
> clauses that determine how the NAP services will be priced.
> It is important that NSF disclose and receive comment on all
> pricing proposals before they become final. NSF should
> create an online discussion list to facilitate public dialog
> on the pricing proposals, and NSF should identify its
> criteria for selecting a particular pricing mechanism,
> addressing the issue of how the pricing system will impact
> the Internet's role in facilitating democratic debate.
>
> 2. NSF should create a consumer advisory board which would
> include a broad cross section of consumer interests,
> including independent network service providers (NSPs),
> publishers of Internet discussion groups and distribution
> lists, academic networks, librarians, citizen groups and
> individual users. This advisory board should review a
> number of policy questions related to the operation of the
> Internet, including questions such as the NAP pricing, NAP
> operator disclosure of financial, technical and operational
> data, systems of Internet accounting which are being tested
> on the vBNS and other topics.
> 3. NSF should solicit public comment, though an online
> discussion group, of the types of safeguards against
> anticompetitive behavior by the NAPs which should be
> addressed in the NSF/NAPs contracts, and on issues such as
> NAPs pricing and Internet accounting systems.
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