> This wasn't the first time Cogent offered something similar. They did the
> same thing when Level3 depeered them.
And they'll do it to others in future peering spats. It's just a bullying
tactic - entertaining if you're on the sideline; irritating if you're Sprint.
It is certainly not "just" a bullying tactic. It may be "A" bullying
tactic, I won't even attempt to guess at the intent, but the tactic also
has the very real side effect of re-establishing full connectivity to
Sprint-connected sites that lose it.
Given that other very significant result of the tactic, it is clearly not
"just a bullying tactic."
you-re right - it's a bullying tactic, not "just a". Apart from the sales and publicity stunt value, it will put a certain amount of pressure on Sprint to actually do something about the problem rather than sit back, ignore it and hope it goes away.
An aside, WV Fiber (AS19151) is currently partitioned from Cogent since
AS19151 only contracts with Sprint for transit and is settlement-free with
the rest of its peers. As previously reported, late last year, Cogent
depeered AS19151 for unknown reasons. Up until yesterday, this wasn't much
of a problem. Now unfortunately, the two networks (AS19151 and AS174) are
partitioned. Any single homed WV Fiber customer and any single homed Cogent
customer can not reach each other. WV Fiber hosts over 7 million eyeballs
and many networks under its AS.
We hope Sprint and Cogent work out their differences, but in the mean time,
we unfortunately will remain partitioned from Cogent.
This brings up something I've always wondered. Why do we have
public depeerings, rather than public deprefings? You'd think both
sides could at least agree to set localpref to 1, and not send each
other anything that they don't absolutely have to until they resolve
their issues. Bypass them if at all possible, but don't partition
the interwebs.
If Sprint is upset that Cogent is sending Sprint much more traffic than Sprint is sending Cogent, how does Sprint sending Cogent even less traffic (and making the ratio even worse) help Sprint? Why would Cogent care?
Just read through Todd's blog posting. Since I'm travelling at the moment with a Sprint EVDO card as my connectivity, I now understand why some sites have not been working. I assume my Sprint phone SMS service is also impacted, insofar as any text-to/from-email will not work to sites on the affected networks either. The micro-browser in my phone will have been affected too, though it's too useless to really use anyway.
If I can find a way to fax the corporate offices of Sprint on Monday, I'll ask them for a refund on my service charges for the month, since they're now selling me access to only part of the Internet from my mobile devices. Funny, I'd just checked a few days ago to see if my mobile devices are beyond any term commitment. Since they are, I will now look at changing to another wireless carrier at the next reasonable opportunity.
Did Sprint think about the fact that their decision would actually impact their wireless customers? I'm sure my business's wireless devices won't make or break Sprint's profits, but wonder if larger businesses using EVDO might also raise concern? Is Sprint now lying about selling "Unlimited Internet Access from anywhere" when peddling their data cards? Is Sony, as well, by inclusion of EVDO cards within their notebook computers? I presume their actuarial staff ran the numbers and decided the risk was worth it, and that's what they'll tell their stock holders.
Just read through Todd's blog posting. Since I'm travelling at the moment with a Sprint EVDO card as my connectivity, I now understand why some sites have not been working. I assume my Sprint phone SMS service is also impacted, insofar as any text-to/from-email will not work to sites on the affected networks either. The micro-browser in my phone will have been affected too, though it's too useless to really use anyway.
If I can find a way to fax the corporate offices of Sprint on Monday, I'll ask them for a refund on my service charges for the month, since they're now selling me access to only part of the Internet from my mobile devices.
I have had occasion to dispute a Sprint charge. To do that, send a physical letter to
Sprint Correspondence
Customer Disputes
PO 15955
Shawnee Mission, Kansas 66285
(This is for "residential" not business accounts.)