Connectivity Providers Database

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 22:28:28 -0400 From: Honza Jirousek <honza@ecn.cz> To: Steven G. Huter <sghuter@nsrc.org> Cc: Karl Kurien <kkurien@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU> In past couple years the speed of Internet dvelopment in Czech Repulic can compare to the speed of Internet development in US (the speed, not the size). There is now over 100 ISPs, with at least 20 of them having their own international connectivity. The number of ISPs is rather decreasing than increasing now, due to the market consolidation by ISPs who can push the prices down due to the economies of scale. It's hard to get good info on numbers of users and total external connectivity of the country, but I've seen some estimates recently there is about 300.000 Internet users, about 100.000 of that dial-up clients. Czech Telecom, the largest ISP, makes for 35.000 dial-up users. Total external connectivity of the country is well over 100Mb/s. 21 ISPs with external connectivity interconnect in a very succesfull peering point NIX.CZ, started abourt 3 years ago. There don't seem to be a good and easy-to-find summary on Internet development in the country. Here is my brief milestone list of ISP market in CZ: - first ISPs in early 90's: CESNET academic network (now commercial - http://www.cesnet.cz) and Conet/InternetCZ/EunetCZ (http://www.eunet.cz - en version available) - 1996 - VideoOnLine/CzechOnLine (http://www.vol.cz) comes to CZ and lowers the prices of dial-up connection to 500Kc (about $17) flat month rate. Also covers 14 cities outside of Prague and Brno. This starts a steep increase user numbers. - 1996/1997 - NIX.CZ established, originally by 6 (?) ISPs. Czech content takes off. - 1997 - Czech Telecom starts InternetOnline (http://www.iol.cz) with a massive campaign, soon followed by further lowering of the prices (down to 200Kc flat month rate for access in off-peak hours only) and coverage of most off the country with local-call POPs. - 1998 - European academic network TEN-34, now TEN-155CZ (http://www.ten34.ces.net - en version available) brings in 34Mbit ATM link for academic and research use only, operated by Cesnet (separately from it's commercial network). Now to be upgraded to 65Mbit with links to both US and Europe. - 1998 - Ebone (http://www.ebone.net) brings first commercial 34Mbit link to Prague, openning BGP-only backbone connectivity market for ISPs. Major ISPs use it for backup links, smaller ISPs as the only means of connectivity. - 1999 - InWay (www.inway.cz) provides wireless internet access inPrague (2.4Gz, BreezeNet) - 1999 - VideoOnLine provides free Internet dial-up access (http://www.volny.cz) in expectation of de-regulation of phone market next year. Soon to be followed by Czech Telecom. The major problem of Czech Internet expansion (both leased lines and dial-up) remains monopoly of Czech Telecom over most of telecommunication infrastructure, leading to prohibitive costs. Local phone calls currently costs about 1Kc (3 cents) per minute and it increases. The market with fixed circuits has been deregulated about two years ago and lower-cost alternatives are appearing (mainly utilizing wireless technologies, but alternatives fiber/copper based infrastructure starts to appear as well). The voice communication market will be deregulated next year, but it will take some time to take effect, and the strategy of Czech Telecom (using current monopoly to build future positions) is obvious from the points above. There is a website, that does a pretty good job in documenting Czech ISP market (in czech only :-). http://www.lupa.cz ("lupa" stands for a looking glass). Some of their links: http://www.lupa.cz/seznam_poskytovatelu - ISP list ("cenik" = price list) http://www.lupa.cz/pripojena_mesta - cities with local POPs http://www.lupa.cz/ceny_za_pripojeni - ISP price comparison http://www.lupa.cz/testy_poskytovatelu - ISP tests Other "central" resources could be NIC.CZ, "cz" TLD coordinator, run by EunetCZ (http://www.nic.cz - english pages under construction). And NIX.CZ (http://www.nix.cz - english pages available; http://www.nix.cz/cgi-bin/nix/peering.php?en - peering table). There is no good "server list" or a "starting point" any more. Perhaps http://www.seznam.cz or one of the search engines (see below) might be a close shot. The reason you can't find English versions of the pages easily is that fully self-sustainable Czech language content realm has developed within last three years. You can find a number of Internet news sites, all major newspapers, "Czech Yahoo" (excellent http://www.seznam.cz - czech only), Czech search engines (http://kompas.seznam.cz, http://www.atlas.cz), businneses, government institutions, NGOs, students, just everyone has a web-page (a couple of my friends make their living designing websites and web database applications), "Czech Amazon" (http://www.vltava.cz), Internet banking ... you name it. Honza