Hmmm.. Not sure "continent" is the right granularity here. In North America
telecoms prices do not in general take enormous hikes when you cross state
borders. In (say) Europe they do. Lines between European countries often
cost more than lines between a given European country and the US. Also
content and thus traffic is far more localised to each country due to
language difficulties (well that part that doesn't go to English speaking
countries anyway). So 3-5 NAPs (or whatever) per homogenous area (homogenous
in content and in telecoms charging) perhaps. But ridiculous telco regulation
within Europe and language differences makes a very strong case for at least
one NAP per country (we dump about 50% of our UK traffic off in the UK).
Alex Bligh
Xara Networks