Guides / Linking networks
Why small ISPs still peer the hard way
Two small ISPs next to each other. Same big upstream. Slow path between their own towns. And somehow they still never link up.
A normal Tuesday
ISP A and ISP B sit about twenty kilometres apart. Both pay the same upstream guy. Gaming between their towns feels worse than a call to Mumbai.
Someone says: why don’t we just peer?
Everyone likes the idea. Then the WhatsApp group goes quiet for three weeks.
The fibre was never the hard part. Talking it through was.
Why we stall
- Paying upstream is simple. You already know that bill. A peer is a relationship. Relationships take time.
- You don’t know who is next door. You know your uplink. You may not know which other plant shares your building or your road.
- Trust matters more than speed on paper. If their traffic hits your edge, a bad day can land on you too.
- Nobody books the meeting. Owners are out splicing. The peer chat stays under the pile.
What “easy” peering actually is
It is not a fancy meet-me room in a metro for every small plant. For most of us it looks like this:
- Spare fibre or a pair between two racks that already sit close.
- A small link, BGP both ways, a short list of what you announce.
- One person on each side to call when the session drops — not a random ticket inbox.
- A pinned WhatsApp note: what you share, what you don’t, who to ring at 2 am.
If that feels too plain, good. Buying more transit so you never write that note is the hard way.
Honest question
If your users in town A talk to users in town B ten kilometres away, and you both pay the same upstream — who is making money on that path, and why are you both paying for it?
Not every neighbour is worth peering with. Some links are not worth the risk.
But if your answer is “we never looked,” that is still a choice. It just does not show up on the bill with that name.
If I started this month
- Name three ISPs near you.
- Ask one owner, not a sales deck: do you have spare fibre or a shared POP?
- If yes, write a one-page note before anyone buys kit.
- If no, write why — so next year you remember.
No product sell here. A monitor will not negotiate your peer for you. It will tell you when the session you built went quiet. That is a later problem.