Enron Mail

From:vince.kaminski@enron.com
To:vincek@leland.stanford.edu
Subject:FW: Internet Services - Bandwidth trading
Cc:vkaminski@aol.com
Bcc:vkaminski@aol.com
Date:Tue, 15 Feb 2000 00:34:00 -0800 (PST)

Vince,

Interesting newsletters.


DAd
---------------------- Forwarded by Vince J Kaminski/HOU/ECT on 02/15/2000
08:34 AM ---------------------------


Paula Corey@ENRON COMMUNICATIONS
02/15/2000 07:31 AM
To: Anthony Mends/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, Vince J
Kaminski/HOU/ECT@ECT, Richard Weeks/Enron Communications@Enron Communications
cc:
Subject: FW: Internet Services - Bandwidth trading


---------------------- Forwarded by Paula Corey/Enron Communications on
02/15/2000 07:33 AM ---------------------------


ametz@houston.rr.com on 02/14/2000 07:16:06 PM
Please respond to alaina@alaina.net

To: Paula Corey/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, Steve Lovett/Enron
Communications@Enron Communications

cc:

Subject: FW: Internet Services - Bandwidth trading



See below for an article on EBS...
Alaina

-----Original Message-----
From: NWFusion Focus [mailto:news@caserta.itwpub1.com]
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2000 7:39 PM
To: Alaina Metz
Subject: Internet Services - Bandwidth trading


NETWORK WORLD FUSION FOCUS: DENISE PAPPALARDO on
INTERNET SERVICES
Today's focus: Bandwidth trading
02/14/00

Dear Alaina Metz,

Find out what's new in Access Services and Equipment at Network World's
free event, State of the WAN: Capitalizing on New Technologies and
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Today's focus: Bandwidth trading
--------------------------------
By Denise Pappalardo

Last week Enron Broadband Services held a press event to talk about the
company's trading of bandwidth.

While bandwidth trading, or intermediation, as Enron's CEO Joseph Hirko
prefers to call it, does not directly affect customers, it's something
they should be aware of.

Enron has developed "pooling points" in Los Angeles and New York, where
Enron and other serv-ice providers buy or sell bandwidth. Carriers
have been leasing capacity from each other for decades and ISPs have
been setting up private peering connections with each other for
several years, so the concept of using each other's bandwidth is not
new.

But Enron has set up a system that's based primarily on Lucent network
management gear, which Enron claims will allow it to do two important
things: Guarantee performance over multiple net-works; and change
circuits in a matter of seconds, as opposed to days or months.

Today, when carriers buy capacity from each other, they ink deals that
sometimes span 20 years. But Enron plans on changing that. The
company's idea is to treat bandwidth as a commodity. Instead of
signing a 20-year deal, the carrier signs up with carrier ABC because
it is offering a competitively low rate on T-3 connections for that
month. But next month carrier XYZ is expected to lower its rates, so
the carrier then switches its circuits from ABC to XYZ.

Enron has the capability to change circuits every five seconds, says Tom
Gros, vice president of global trading at Enron. So the idea is that
carriers are going to be able to get high-quality bandwidth at reduced
rates. Nothing wrong with that idea, but a few questions come up.

One: Will your carrier or ISP share those savings with you, the business
customer? Well, that's hard to say. This is a difficult question to
answer because most Enron's "intermediation" partner deals are
confidential. Global Crossings, a wholesale carrier, is the only deal
that's been announced because it was Enron's first.

So chances are you won't even know if your carrier is working with
Enron, who claims several other carriers are in fact working with
them.

Two: Doesn't constant circuit changes bring up monitoring issues for
business users? Gros says it should not, and in fact end users should
expect even better monitoring capabilities. Now while En-ron very well
might provide its carrier and ISP partners with high-end monitoring
tools, I would take the position that it's highly unlikely that
carriers are going to make those tools available to their cus-tomers.
Why? Well the answer gets back to the first issue. If all of the deals
are confidential, end us-ers aren't going to even know their circuits
are getting switched around.

Would you want to know if your carrier or ISP is participating in
bandwidth trading?

To contact Denise Pappalardo:
-----------------------------
Denise Pappalardo is a senior editor for Network World, covering ISPs,
VPNs and related topics. Reach her at mailto:denisep@nww.com.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FOR RELATED LINKS -- Click here for Network World's home page:
http://www.nwfusion.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enron inks deal with Sun to further broadband Net service, Network
World, 01/21/00
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2000/0121enron.html

Bandwidth broker opens for business, Network World, 10/18/99
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/1999/1018bandtrade.html

Enron building bandwidth the IP way, Network World, 08/02/99
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/1999/0802carrier.html

Archive of Network World Fusion Focus on Internet Services newsletters:
http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/isp/

Other ISP-related articles from Network World:

Denise Pappalardo: ASPs to jam with Jamcracker, Network World, 02/14/00
http://www.nwfusion.com/archive/2000/87199_02-14-2000.html

New ASP twist: Mgmt. service providers, Network World, 02/14/00
http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2000/0214cooler.html

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