The FCC Office of Plans and Policy Releases A Paper Titled, The Digital Hand shake: Connecting Internet Backbones - Brief Article

Information Superhighways Newsletter, Oct, 2000

The FCC Office of Plans and Policy (OPP) recently released a paper titled, The Digital Handshake: Connecting Internet Backbones. The paper, authored by Michael Kende, director of Internet policy analysis for the OPP, examines the interconnection arrangements between internet backbone providers that lead to the universal connectivity that characterizes the Internet.

The paper concludes that interconnection arrangements between Internet backbone providers should remain free of regulation. Kende also concludes that "market forces, including consumer demands, are likely to ensure that Internet backbone providers continue to provide universal connectivity."

Other issues covered include:

- Interconnection Agreements: the Paper shows how competition governed by antitrust laws and competition enforcement, can prevent the emergence of a dominant firm, and act to restrain larger backbone providers from engaging in behavior that might otherwise warrant industry-specific regulations, such as interconnection obligations;

- Future Internet Sales: the paper shows how the Internet marketplace may prevent any fragmentation of the Internet as it evolves to support new real-time services;

- International Interconnection: the paper concludes that legacy international telecommunications cost-sharing models are not appropriate for the Internet backbone.