The view I see, working at a tier 1 provider that hasn't always been tier 1 (we used to have to pay some of the big guys for transit) is that Internet backbone is still a competitive marketplace, or actually multiple regional marketplaces (U.S., Europe, Asia, Latin America). The big guys in each region (often state-owned or otherwise specially privileged incumbents) do still try to throw their weight around in various ways, but that doesn't seem to have hindered the our ability or that of tier 2 providers like Cogent (which is nearly, but not quite, tier 1) to compete effectively for transit business. Hamish: I don't think I understand your comment. If a customer of a tier N (N>1) provider is paying for Internet service, they have the expectation of being able to reach the entire Internet, but their provider is going to have to pay somebody for transit in order to have that reachability. If their provider fails to pay for transit and thus is unable to reach parts of the Internet, that's nobody's fault but their provider.