Group of Four (Australia)
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The Group of Four (also known as Gang of Four or GOF) is a term used to describe the peering agreements in place between Telstra, Optus, AAPT and MCI.
Despite competitors such as Chime Communications, Comindico, Agile Communications and Primus Telecom having arguably similar if not more traffic volume and network size (in Australia) than two telcos in the group (usually AAPT and MCI), competitors have long been denied the ability to peer with the Group of Four (in fact, almost nothing has changed since the agreements were signed in 1998 under ACCC pressure), and forced to pay per-megabyte costs versus getting a connection for "free".
Peering exchanges such as PIPE Networks, WAIX and AUSIX claim to be routing a substantial and growing amount of traffic away from the group.
To this effect, within Australia, the Tier 1 carrier term tends to be used to describe telcos with nationwide networks and their own private capacity to the US (regardless of whether their US capacity is via transit or peering connections), to avoid referring exclusively to the Group of Four.
[edit] Notes
- MCI's agreement came to them when they acquired OzEmail as a part of UUNET. When OzEmail was acquired by iiNet, the peering agreement stayed with MCI, along with most network equipment.
- Optus formerly peered at WAIX, as part of a peering agreement inherited from its owners SingTel at acquisition. Optus suddenly disconnected from WAIX in 2003. (Whirlpool story)
- AAPT does peer at WAIX, but only routes from their Western Australia network are advertised for peering.
