At the outbreak of the skirmish between Cogent and Level 3 that temporarily disrupted the Internet traffic of some of their customers, I predicted here that the two parties would resolve their interconnection differences without regulatory intervention. And I said I would keep you apprised of what happened.

Well, as you probably already know and as Ray already reported in this space, what happened is that Level 3 and Cogent have resolved their differences without a PUC, the FCC, Congress, Karl Rove, or even Kofi Annan and the UN getting involved. (I told you so!)

We're going to have a very interesting discussion at a congressional seminar this Friday, November 4, on "Interconnection Without Regulation", where we are going to examine how and why and under what circumstances interconnection in network industries works without regulatory intervention. With Level 3's Bill Hunt as a participant, I'm sure we'll focus on the recent Internet brouhaha, along with railroads, airlines, and ATMs.

Hope to see you there.