Demise of CIX and who speaks for ISPs?

Perhaps I'm slow on the uptake but somehow I missed the demise of CIX last January according to the bottom of this press release from a new entitity called the United States Internet Service Provider Association, which according to the press release says "The US ISPA was created from the former Commercial Internet eXchange ('CIX'), which announced today that it was disbanding and being reconstituted with an entirely new membership group and Internet focus under the US ISPA name." It's the surprising end of an era. The Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX) was founded in 1991 to provide a commercial interconnection point so that commercial traffic could be exchanged without compromising the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) of NSFNET. Later, CIX became a trade association and lobbying force for ISPs in the US and it's somewhat surprising that it didn't manage to rally enough support to survive. In general, I've been surprised that ISPs have never been able to collectively front very effective trade associations that defend their interests, a topic which Scott Mace discusses in his two articles on Who Speaks for the ISPs?: part 1; part 2.

7:40:52 PM    Google It!