USA Waves (or Waves2U or WavesRus …. ) : AT&T Cooperative Proposal Net-Edu Member Meeting Tempe, AZ February 5, 2003 Don Riley VP & CIO University of Maryland.

USA Waves(or Waves2U or WavesRus …. ) :

AT&T Cooperative Proposal

Net-Edu Member MeetingTempe, AZ

February 5, 2003

Don RileyVP & CIO

University of Maryland

Copyright Donald R. Riley, 2003. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

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Some History

SURA Southern Crossroads Initiatives SoX MAX

SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative Recognition that SoX and MAX were not enough Needed more inclusive, pervasive, ubiquitous…. Evolved to explore both dark fiber and managed bandwidth solutions GEO-Matrix contract

Mapped out SURA member locations plus other important institutions• Fed labs, Hospitals, Research Centers, etc.

RFP resulted in exploring several telecom vendors as suppliers/partners

Selected Velocita as Vendor/Partner We got early warning they were going to declare Chapter 11 and

restructure Positioned to pursue dark fiber option with Velocita -- all the way

thru Chapter 11 process until liquidation….

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SURA RII Guiding Principles

The following principles have guided this initiative: Enhance research capacity of Southeast, enable to

participate in national research initiatives and opportunities;

Inclusive - Special focus on non-metropolitan SURA member institutional connectivity;

Avoid limitations on the use of the infrastructure imposed by restrictive use policies;

Support networked services at the lowest possible cost and to create new services where needed;

benefit the broadest community by aggregating connectivity at carrier hotels where possible,

Desire to significantly disrupt the existing pricing models for network infrastructure.

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National Buyers Consortium (NBC)

Brought together “National Buyers Consortium” as vehicle to pursue dark fiber option with Velocita -- all the way thru Chapter 11 process until liquidation…. approximately 30 universities and academic networking organizations

throughout US

Initially was based on Quilt members who could benefit from Velocita footprint

Intent was to act as cooperative to leverage broad regional needs and collective purchasing power to acquire fiber and bandwidth assets to facilitate the development of advanced networks for R&E.

Potential to provide a means for administering regional and national cooperative relationships (starting with AT&T)

Open to any not-for profit R&E organization

Different, broader than Quilt

Independent of SURA, UCAID, other members

Different but complementary to goals of NLR, Fiberco, etc.

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National Buyers Consortium (NBC)

Pursued dark fiber option with Velocita -- all the way thru Chapter 11 process until liquidation….

Continued process with AT&T -- who acquired Velocita assets plus Bob Collet

AT&T proposal for very low fiber pricing was initial target Discussions with AT&T evolved to discussion and offer to NLR

Contained major fiber donation component Total cost of lighting/maintaining/operating AT&T fiber over national footprint

was at best same AT&T withdrew offer

On-going discussions with SURA, UCAID and GEO/IEEAF on behalf of NBC

Result is offer for “Grid Network Development and Infrastructure Cooperative” Expansion/modification of previous offers to include ‘managed bandwidth’

solutions in addition to dark fiber donation and fiber purchase options

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What’s the goal?

We believe our community needs a set of tools to meet our varied needs -- not encumbered by ‘exclusivities’ Example from history: MCI and vBNS history…. Example from history: Qwest/Abilene and AUP issues…. Not to mention coverage

gaps

We need multiple partners and tools Qwest, Level3, AT&T, … Cisco, Juniper, Ciena, etc…

This is about a one set of ‘connectivity’ tools: fiber and wavelengths

Not a Network or Backbone Initiative as such It only addresses ‘connectivity’ needs -- not the entire set of end to end issues But this should support various initiatives (national, regional, state, metro) It’s a cooperative effort Just something we do in our spare time -- for recreation

You’ve heard of Surfing -- Riding the Waves….

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Before Going Surfing: What you should know

Choose Your Waves Carefully…. Not all waves are the same Not all surfers are ready for the same size wave, or as

many waves Sometimes smaller is better Should be enough waves for everyone to try When you master small waves, then bigger ones should be

next If you go too big too fast, it’s a big ocean and you’ll end up

swallowing some of it or being swallowed by it Or lose your swimsuit and achieve ‘visibility’….

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Components of the AT&T collaboration offer:

FIBER: Donation of several thousand miles of dark fiber (Velocita assets) plus

whatever Cisco equipment might have been on the Velocita routes they acquired -- for creating our 'production' optical backbone

Donation of additional “next generation” fiber (1000 miles) for optical research pilot/projects (with annual O&M costs waived)

Very aggressive low price for dark fiber

MANAGED SERVICES (LAMDAS) AT INCREMENTAL COST: Very cheap wavelengths on their current network backbone everywhere

they have them available, at their incremental cost only. OC-192, OC-48 offers as "lambda IRUs":

low one time cost, plus low annual O&M Commitment to provide similar incremental cost pricing for wavelengths on

their next generation long-haul network, when it becomes available.

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Significance of AT&T Offer

Truly precedent setting -- ‘disruptive pricing’ Allows to ‘mix and match’ fiber and wavelengths to meet our

needs No minimums No exclusivities

AT&T current network has the most dense network in the country, goes more places than any other 600 POPs -- many in common carrier hotels/shared POPs and

fiber meet-me-rooms over 100 network loops around the country Metro fiber

Next Generation Offer to collaborate on electronics selection

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AT&T Next Generation Network

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Status of Agreement

SURA and UCAID have responded positively to offer letter on behalf of the NBC

Have not signed LOI yet Working out additional details -- need some good cost

numbers Negotiations on terms continuing Everything has gone in positive direction

Distributed request for NPA-NXX info from NBC members Generated over 150, more still coming Prioritized and gave subset of 15 to AT&T to generate

example pricing to move forward on LOI

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Organizational Model

Current models Too narrow Some too ‘owner’ oriented Some contain ‘exclusivities’ and terms that hobble

SURA reserved “USA Waves” as 501c.3 Vehicle for Instantiation of the 'National Buyers Cooperative’ not-for-profit membership corporation true cooperative (governed by members) open membership equal participation (equal votes) No ‘club fees’ to join -- but maybe some costs to be recovered Whatever else the cooperative members think should be included....

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SURF’s UP!(Waves are Coming…)

For info on NBC and USA Waves or to request NDA,

Contact Gary Crane, SURA

USA Waves (or Waves2U or WavesRus …. ) : AT&T Cooperative Proposal Net-Edu Member Meeting Tempe, AZ February 5, 2003 Don Riley VP & CIO University of Maryland.

Documents

velocita assets

low fiber pricing

national research initiatives

sura member locations

velocita footprint zintent

sura rii

att zopen

zcontinued process