[ih] History of the Economics of the Internet?

[Miles Fidelman]

I seem to recall that institutions paid for their connection to the ARPANET - using funds that would otherwise pay for leased lines and other telecom costs.  Paid out of ARPA grants.  Money ARPA was paying anyway, with the ARPANET as a way to cut the costs.  Kind of like how the post office jump started the airlines & aerospace industry by paying for airmail.  Or the railroads by paying for mail transport.



Sent from Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg>
________________________________
From: Internet-history <internet-history-bounces at elists.isoc.org> on behalf of Scott O. Bradner via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org>
Sent: Thursday, 30 July 2026 18:17:25
To: John Levine <johnl at iecc.com>
Cc: internet-history at elists.isoc.org <internet-history at elists.isoc.org>
Subject: Re: [ih] History of the Economics of the Internet?

it also touches on what the legacy telcos expect as to settlements etc


> On Jul 30, 2026, at 4:48 PM, John Levine <johnl at iecc.com> wrote:
>
> It appears that Scott Bradner via Internet-history <sob at sobco.com> said:
>> this covers some of the current discussions over the Internet's economic model
>> within the regulatory world (at least in the US)
>>
>> https://isoclive.substack.com/p/fcc-ip-transition
>
> Not really. It's about moving the telephone system from legacy SS7 to IP
> signalling, switching, and transport. It's the same technology as the Internet
> but it's separate dedicated IP networks with privately negotiated
> interconnections and occasionally still per-minute settlements.
>
> There is also telephony that runs "over the top" of the public Internet, but
> that's something else. That's VoIP, Voice over IP, while the former is VuIP,
> Voice using IP. There are plenty of vendors that provide VoIP to VuIP gateways
> so your VoIP terminals can make and receive calls to or from real phone numbers.
>
> R's,
> John

--
Internet-history mailing list
Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
-
Unsubscribe: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/9b6ef0621638436ab0a9b23cb0668b0b?The%20list%20to%20be%20unsubscribed%20from=Internet-history