1403) What are HKIX, PNETS licence etc?
Description
This article is from the Hong Kong FAQ, by John Ho john@jho.com with numerous contributions by others.
1403) What are HKIX, PNETS licence etc?
Here is some general explanation of those somewhat confusing terms.
Alternet : Many Hong Kong providers has their US link to Alternet.
Alternet situates in California, running a 45M bps Internet
backbone in the USA. It is a favourite link to the US of
many HK ISPs.
Frame Relay : Some ISPs are connecting to the US/overseas using frame
relay circuits. The performance and throughput of frame
relay circuits definitely cannot be compared with
international private lease circuits (IPLC). One thing
for sure is that the performance and throughput of a
256Kbps frame relay circuit is lower than a 256Kbps
IPLC and it is very hard to say how much lower. You have
to use it to feel it.
Most (maybe all) ISPs connected to Sprintlink are using
frame relay.
For more information on this try :
http://www.cuhk.hk/hkix/hkixdiag.html
http://frame-relay.indiana.edu/frame-relay/
HARNET : Hong Kong Academic and Research NETwork. Tertiary
educational institutions in Hong Kong are networked
together by T1 links to form the HARNET.
The tertiary educational institutions access the Internet
via a 128k HARNET Internet link. This HARNET Internet link
is shared by all tertiary educational institutions. The
tertiary educational institutions agree to have the HARNET
Internet link be installed at the Chinese University of
Hong Kong which also provides the resource to manage this
link.
HKIX : Hong Kong Internet Exchange. HKIX is a project initiated
and operated by Chinese University of Hong Kong. The aim
is to interconnect the ISPs in Hong Kong so that intra-Hong
Kong traffic can be exchanged locally without routing
through US.
ISPs with links to HKIX will be much faster in accessing
other joined local networks, as otherwise data may have to
be routed to the US first, then come back to Hong Kong,
which means a waste of both time and bandwidth.
HARNET is also reachable via HKIX.
Online Storage : Usually if users store extra MB than the given disk quota,
an average will be taken over the usage over the month and
users will be charged accordingly. Generally storage is not
a problem for most users, especially if the connection is
via SLIP/PPP.
Own Int'l Link : Whether the ISP has its own international link to the
Internet outside Hong Kong. Some ISPs rely on other Hong
Kong ISPs which has links outside Hong Kong to route
through their data, instead of having their own link. Note
that relatively these ISPs will have slower performance as
a result in accessing overseas sites. And those ISPs who are
providing such routing services to other ISPs will also
suffer from slower performance than it appears could have
been, as the amount of data being transferred through them
is increased.
PNETS fee : Under Hong Kong law, being an ISP has to hold a Public
Non-Exclusive Telecommmunication Service (PNETS)
Licence, which costs only $750 a year. But Hong Kong
Telecom levies a royalty of $5.4 per hour per user. For
whatever reasons some ISPs haven't been charged on that
extra $5.4 per hour royalty yet. However, when Telecom
begins to charge, this additional costs will inevitably be
transferred to customers. So be warned about this as users
of these ISPs may have to pay more later.
For some ISPs which has "PNETS fee included" means the fee
they are charging already includes Telecom royalty, ie
you don't have to know what it is all about to avoid
further confusion. But although the fee is said to be
included, it doesn't mean the ISPs are _in fact_ paying
the fee to Telecom.
ISPs having their modem diaup number starting with 300
(ie. 300x-xxxx) are already paying PNETS fee.
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