4 ms·

I am not really sure, but I can at least list those that has a good chance (assuming that they weren't beaten over by a startup): European ISPs with Tier-1 cap

I am not really sure, but I can at least list those that has a good chance (assuming that they weren't beaten over by a startup): European ISPs with Tier-1 capabilities: Sweden's Arelion (prev. Telia Carrier), Telecom Italia's Sparkle, T-Systems (part of Deustche Telekom), France's Orange, and the business and carrier division of Telefonica. Webhosting with demonstrated capabilities are another one: I can only name OVH to be frank. Iliad (dba Scaleway) has good European connections but not global, and Hetzner while a capable hoster is not that invested outside of Germany.

viraptor 5y ago
It would be interesting if the ISPs got into this game. Although it doesn't look like they're interested so far - at least not in the non-big-government-contract way. US telcos didn't get involved either at consumer CDN level. Hetzner has only a handful of locations - they'd have to massively scale up to be a viable CDN and add all the needed tech.
- zinekeller 5y ago
  T-Systems did dab on a, uhm, complicated partnership (legally-speaking, it was otherwise a boring one) with Microsoft (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/germany/germany-welcome https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/germany/germany-welco...).
welterde 5y ago
Hetzner also has facilities in Finland and even bought into a low-latency undersea cable for that purpose. They are also expanding into the US currently.
- KptMarchewa 5y ago
  >They are also expanding into the US currently. This makes it worse, since they fall under US CLOUD Act now.
  - welterde 5y ago
    I think they created a subsidiary company in the US for their US offering and I don't think the US cloud act can compel the parent company to do anything? Whereas the inverse direction was problematic.
    - malermeister 5y ago
      If that's the case, would it make sense for US-based companies to switch their ownership structure around so their EU subsidiary becomes the parent company?
      - zinekeller 5y ago
        No, they will lose US domicile which is important for certain things like government and military (literal $$$) contracts. This isn't theoretical, Broadcom (which in 2015-2018 was structured to be domiciled in Singapore mainly for tax reasons) nearly acquired Qualcomm but was blocked due to US national security concerns (https://www.straitstimes.com/business/trump-signs-order-prohibiting-broadcom-takeover-of-qualcomm https://www.straitstimes.com/business/trump-signs-order-proh..., although I'll note that in practice even if US-domiciled, Qualcomm's board isn't interested and a hostile takeover is unlikely to be successful).
        malermeister 5y ago
        I guess the question is then: Are US government contracts worth more than access to a market of 500M people, mostly reasonably well off?
        zinekeller 5y ago
        You definitely didn't heard of the US military-industrial complex: (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_complex https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_...). Also, most cutting-edge technologies tends to derive from US academe and research facilities, so they can block non-US companies from using it.

viraptor 5y ago

It would be interesting if the ISPs got into this game. Although it doesn't look like they're interested so far - at least not in the non-big-government-contract way. US telcos didn't get involved either at consumer CDN level. Hetzner has only a handful of locations - they'd have to massively scale up to be a viable CDN and add all the needed tech.

zinekeller 5y ago
T-Systems did dab on a, uhm, complicated partnership (legally-speaking, it was otherwise a boring one) with Microsoft (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/germany/germany-welcome https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/germany/germany-welco...).

welterde 5y ago

Hetzner also has facilities in Finland and even bought into a low-latency undersea cable for that purpose. They are also expanding into the US currently.

KptMarchewa 5y ago
>They are also expanding into the US currently. This makes it worse, since they fall under US CLOUD Act now.
- welterde 5y ago
  I think they created a subsidiary company in the US for their US offering and I don't think the US cloud act can compel the parent company to do anything? Whereas the inverse direction was problematic.
  - malermeister 5y ago
    If that's the case, would it make sense for US-based companies to switch their ownership structure around so their EU subsidiary becomes the parent company?
    - zinekeller 5y ago
      No, they will lose US domicile which is important for certain things like government and military (literal $$$) contracts. This isn't theoretical, Broadcom (which in 2015-2018 was structured to be domiciled in Singapore mainly for tax reasons) nearly acquired Qualcomm but was blocked due to US national security concerns (https://www.straitstimes.com/business/trump-signs-order-prohibiting-broadcom-takeover-of-qualcomm https://www.straitstimes.com/business/trump-signs-order-proh..., although I'll note that in practice even if US-domiciled, Qualcomm's board isn't interested and a hostile takeover is unlikely to be successful).
      - malermeister 5y ago
        I guess the question is then: Are US government contracts worth more than access to a market of 500M people, mostly reasonably well off?
        zinekeller 5y ago
        You definitely didn't heard of the US military-industrial complex: (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_complex https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_...). Also, most cutting-edge technologies tends to derive from US academe and research facilities, so they can block non-US companies from using it.