
I've been a very intent NREN spectator of the NREN for years.  As a 
commercial IP software vendor, it really is my professional opinion that the 
NREN, at this point, is irrelevant to private sector networking.  If it had 
been deployed five years ago, it would have been a major development.  Now,
however, it's just an upgrade to the NSFnet, and an attempt to revive the 
lagging use of the national supercomputer centers.  You could cut out the 
NSFnet completely, and the Internet would continue chugging along without a 
hiccup (aside from a few universities).

Long-haul networking and Internet connectivity have long since ceased to be 
under federal sponsorship or regulation, at least in the USA.  The success of 
the CIX (Commercial Internet Exchange) is a prime example of this.  While our 
dear VP has been promoting his "data superhighway," the private sector has 
been building it, without the NSFnet's restrictions.

To illustrate, a connection from the machine on my desk to the machine your 
article was posted from (pizzabox.demon.co.uk) involves *only* commercial IP 
providers until it hits Amsterdam.  No NSFnet.  No NREN.  No "appropriate 
use" restrictions.  It's even 1.544mbps (T1) until it hits the EUnet 
gateway...

QED.
