So why is there no rural e-mail completion problem?

Source: 
Coverage Type: 

[Commentary] Why is there no rural e-mail completion problem?

Historically, long distance carriers became financially responsible for the transport path between rural exchanges and the rest of the public-switched telephone network or PSTN. The Internet never developed this distinction, either organically or through regulation. Thus, one important reason why there is no rural e-mail completion problem is because, on the Internet, rural ISPs retain the responsibility for ensuring that their customers are connected to the rest of the Internet. In contrast, on the PSTN, responsibility for transmission of long distance calls to rural exchange customers is dispersed among a plethora of long distance carriers, or IXCs (wireless providers, VoIP providers, etc.), that may have varying degrees of concern about whether a tiny percentage of their calls destined for rural areas are successfully completed or not. Because the provider with the most direct customer relationship -- and thus the most immediate concern for that customer’s service quality -- retains the responsibility for connectivity to the Internet, the Internet approach of not distinguishing local from long distance has produced a better outcome for rural customers or, at the very least, the avoidance of an arcane debate over rural email completion. Either way, I think we can agree we’re better off.


So why is there no rural e-mail completion problem?