Your buddy probably still has to pay for internet exchange with the backbones, they only give it for free if you're also a tier 1 ISP (i.e. see Lumen's requirem

Your buddy probably still has to pay for internet exchange with the backbones, they only give it for free if you're also a tier 1 ISP (i.e. see Lumen's requirements[1] and the others'[2]). Even massive ISPs like Comcast still have to pay for internet access[3] because they're not big enough to be a "peer" to the tier 1s. PS. I think you're shadowbanned since this and your last 7 comments all showed up as [dead]. [1]: https://www.lumen.com/en-us/about/legal/peering-policy.html https://www.lumen.com/en-us/about/legal/peering-policy.html [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tier_1_network#List_of_Tier_1_networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tier_1_network#List_of_Tier_1_... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tier_1_network#Other_major_networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tier_1_network#Other_major_net...