Mark Nichols

Mark Nichols: Career

I co-founded Digital Island in 1996, the first global commercial Internet backbone, and served as its chief architect. The title is documentary, not honorary: the genesis network diagrams, hand-drawn in June 1996 and redrawn in CAD before the company had its first engineer, are dated, preserved, published on this site, and reproduced in my book, and every team that followed built to them.

I coined and built both halves of the solution: Merchant Transport, the product, commercial transactions traveling end to end on transport engineered for them, and Tier-0, the network class that carried it, a private fabric of IPLC circuits spanning six continents under our own autonomous system, AS6553, operating above the Tier-1 carriers.

That fabric connected the world’s major ISPs and ≈99% of Internet-accessible users into one seamless worldwide network: the platform that carried the globalization of the Internet, Web, and eCommerce.

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My career is a team story, and I’ve never claimed otherwise. Nobody builds a global network, wins ten figures of expert casework, contributes to 16 internet milestones and 13 industry awards, or ships a company to the NASDAQ alone. Everybody on the team pulled their own plow. The economic harvest we brought to the enterprise was the culmination of my work alongside the individual contributions of many others.

What I bring is the capacity to see what needs building, formulate the right solution, assemble the best people, secure the capital, execute my individual responsibilities, and collaborate effectively with others to get it all done. I’m one of the get-shit-done guys.

Built on decades of foundational work by those who designed the protocols and built regional networks, this culmination of prior inventions, together with our time-specific internetworking contributions, enabled us to collectively activate the globalization of eCommerce for the first time.

I posture this multi-decade and tiered accomplishment for debate as the most transformative event in human history.

The record below, and my homepage at https://marknichols.com/, is what we accomplished working together.

On this page:

1. Federal, State, and Telecommunications Carrier Licenses
2. Expert Witness Casework
3. Consulting Experience
4. 16 Prominent Internet Milestones
5. Career Team Awards
6. Customer Acquisition Contributions
7. Professional Experience
8. Education
9. Appendix: The Four Experiences That Led to Co-Founding Digital Island
10. Exhibits
11. Record of Coined Terms: Telecom and Internet Lexicon

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1. Federal, State, and Telecommunications Carrier Licenses

FCC International Section 214 Authorization. Individual Facilities-Based and Resale Carrier. File No. ITC-214-20021203-00571. Application for authority to operate as a facilities-based carrier under Section 63.18(e)(1), and to provide service under Section 63.18(e)(2). Granted December 25, 2002. Held by Mark Nichols as an individual. Federal authority of this class is ordinarily held by carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon; an individual holding a personal facilities-based international 214 is exceptionately rare.

Filing: ITC, International Telecommunications; 214, International Global Resale Authority
Service type: Individual Facilities-Based and Resale Service
Date filed: 2002-12-03 · Date granted: 2002-12-25 · Delegated Authority No. 02-3586 · Streamlined
Applicant: Mark Nichols, POB 283, 2510 Mt Diablo Scenic Blvd, Diablo, CA 94528

Supporting carrier credentials:
FCC Form 499 Filer ID: 824344
NANPA Feature Group D Carrier Identification Code (CIC): #1225, assigned to Mark Nichols dba Global Telecom Solutions, 2002
Access Customer Name Abbreviation (ACNA): YMN

Other licenses and certifications:
California Real Estate Broker, 1990 (eight college courses and a 400-question examination)
Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), 2011
FCC Amateur Radio (Technician), KZ7MAX

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2. Expert Witness Casework

Served as an expert witness in high-stakes matters with cumulative claimed damages exceeding $10 billion, including cases involving securities fraud, exposure to life sentences, and, in one case, the death penalty. My opinions supported favorable outcomes for all clients.

AT&T Shareholders v. AT&T Corp., CEO C. Michael Armstrong, CFO Dan Somers, CTO John Petrillo (Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood), $2.4B. Retained by the defense; paid $100K to research and author my opinion, 2004 (not inflation-adjusted). Read the opinion here.

WorldCom Shareholders v. WorldCom Corp. and CEO Bernie Ebbers (Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle), $6.1B. The largest telecom lawsuit in the history of the country.

Global Crossing Shareholders v. Arthur Andersen (Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle), $1B

C2 v. AT&T, Verizon, Level 3, Qwest, Global Crossing, BellSouth, Sprint-Nextel [U.S. Patent 6,243,373, the seminal VoIP patent] (Susman Godfrey), $1B

Genuity Bankruptcy Committee v. Nortel (Lovells), $263M

Qwest v. Novo, AxisTel, and eVentures (Brownstein, Farber & Hyatt), $250M

Lucent v. Network Access Solutions (Lowenstein Sandler), $54M

Lucent v. Telephony International (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe), $50M

MicroAge v. AT&T Global Network Services, GE Interlogix (Gleaves, Swearingen, Potter)

Cogent v. eBroadBandNow (Law Office of Byron Fleck)

TKTel v. Ericsson (Altman & Company)

La Touraine v. Navisite

People v. Scott Peterson. Advised law enforcement, pre-indictment, on cellular network location forensics for the search warrant, addressing the tower registration and handoff records that establish handset location independent of a suspect’s statements.

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3. Consulting Experience

Advised Adobe Systems on their data center facilities and eCommerce platforms prior to executive committee decisions. Read the opinion here.

Advised United Airlines on their $100M global internet and telecommunications expansion.

Advised Verizon and Arbinet, and paid for Arbinet’s initial four Cisco AS5300 gateways ($100K, not inflation-adjusted), to facilitate their first VoIP-originated trials; together we effectively globalized Voice over IP.

Advised Microsoft on the integration of the first VoIP client internally embedded into a computer operating system.

Originated the problem identification and advised Genuity of the patentable system requirement for establishing the availability of an Internet gateway port to receive a VoIP call, later issued as U.S. Patent 6,940,849.

Advised Lucent on a patent co-op with the University of Paris for a $5 million technology share of the g.729 codec.

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4. 16 Prominent Internet Milestones

In senior leadership roles, alongside many others, I contributed to what became 16 prominent internet milestones:

In 2001, we provisioned and managed the network operations for the fastest-growing web portal for 10 million subscribers in internet history, faster than Yahoo! and AOL combined.

In 2001, we provided the telecom operations for the first 1 billion minutes originated using Voice over IP (VoIP) worldwide, two years prior to the founding of Vonage and Skype.

In 2001, I initiated the first VoIP-originated trials put into worldwide production with both Verizon and Arbinet, enabling the effective globalization of VoIP.

In 1996, I co-founded Digital Island, an international telecommunications company, where I was responsible for acquiring the network infrastructure that connected ≈99% of the regionally significant ISPs and internet users together, worldwide, seamlessly over one autonomous network, for the effective globalization of the internet, web, and eCommerce.

In 1998, I traveled to Beijing to meet with the Minister of Telecom for China (Professor Xing Li, Tsinghua University), where we negotiated a service contract for the first internet peering with CERNET for the People’s Republic of China.

In 1996, I negotiated and signed a service contract with Cisco Systems to host Cisco.com, when they were the 587th largest company in the USA. Three years later, in 1999, they became the most valuable company in the world, just 15 years after their inception, while employing our network to scale and support their growth.

In 1997, we enabled the globalization of eCommerce with Visa, MasterCard, E*TRADE, and Charles Schwab.

In 1997, we enabled the globalization of eLearning and ePublishing with Stanford University.

In 1997, we developed the network platform that made possible the first global Content Delivery Network (CDN), also known as Local Content Manager, two years prior to the founding of Akamai.

In 1998, we enabled the globalization of Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) with the industry’s first on-demand allocation of bandwidth over the internet, Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP).

In 1999, we built the largest media streaming network in the world, partnering with Microsoft, Compaq, and Intel.

In 1998, we provided the internet services platform that Google’s founders used for upstream ISP connections to build the first repository of Google search results while they were graduate students at Stanford University (google.stanford.edu).

In 1998, Cisco Systems honored the global network I acquired with the award for building the world’s first “Cisco Powered Network,” a designation that is now an industry benchmark.

In 2001, we provided the platform integration infrastructure to Microsoft for the first unified communications (UC) telephony application embedded internally within a computer operating system (Windows XP SIP VoIP client).

In 1995, I launched perfectwheels.com, one of roughly 7,000 non-adult websites on the internet at the time. With an estimated total of about 23,000 websites, most of them adult-oriented, this placed early web publishers in a very small global cohort, roughly one website owner per million people.

In 1999, we co-developed TraceWare with Stanford University’s HighWire Press. This patented technology leverages real-time data processing to automate regulatory compliance for global media, addressing both regional and localized requirements.

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5. Career Team Awards

In a senior leadership role, alongside many incredibly talented individuals, I contributed to these industry awards:

Digital Island named “Most Innovative Service Provider of the Year,” Network Computing, 2000, by CMP Media.

Data Communications Magazine “Hot Products Award,” January 1998, for our Managed Bandwidth Service. The award acknowledges “The Brightest Ideas in Networking.”

Computerworld selected Digital Island as one of 100 Emerging Companies to Watch in 2000, for its e-Network Services’ approach to enabling e-Business for Fortune 1,000 corporations.

Internet World Industry Awards, Industry Access Services Category, 1998: “The Best Service Enabling Internet or Intranet Functions Beyond Basic Connectivity,” including website hosting and transaction processing.

Dialpad. Internet Telephony Magazine “Product of the Year.”

Dialpad. “Best Internet Telephony Site for 2001,” Yahoo! Internet Life.

Dialpad. “Number One in Internet Telephony Traffic,” Nielsen Net Ranking.

Dialpad. “Number One Ranking Among VoIP Service Traffic,” Frost & Sullivan.

Dialpad. “Best of Show,” 2001 Internet Telephony Conference and Expo.

Dialpad. “Market Share Leader” among VoIP carriers, ITU.

Dialpad. Internet Telephony Magazine “Product of the Year,” 2000.

Cisco Systems 2011 Global Service Provider Partner of the Year.

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6. Customer Acquisition Contributions (partial list)

Cisco Systems, Stanford University, Microsoft, Adobe Systems, Visa, Google, Apple, Digital River, AAA, US Steel, Bank of America, Coors Brewing, Target, McDonald’s, McKesson, Discovery Channel, Royal Dutch Shell, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, ADP, Nordstrom, Nike Air Jordan, Jeep-Chrysler, Marriott Hotels, Ritz-Carlton, Akamai, United Airlines, WorldCom, AT&T, Lucent, Global Crossing, Arthur Andersen, Qwest, Genuity, Level 3, PacBell, Seagate, Franklin Templeton, and Costco.

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7. Professional Experience

AT&T Consulting Solutions, San Francisco, CA. Senior Technical Consultant, Signature Client Group

Global Telecom Solutions, Diablo, CA. Internet Application and Infrastructure Consultant

Telphonic Communications (sold to 3U Telekom A.G.), Diablo, CA. President, Operations and Carrier Alliances

Dialpad Communications (sold to Yahoo! as Yahoo! Voice), Santa Clara, CA. Vice President, Network Operations and Carrier Alliances

Digital Island (sold to Cable & Wireless), San Francisco, CA. Co-Founder and Director of Global Networks

Sprint Communications, Walnut Creek, CA. Mid-Market Sales, Fortune 1000 to 5000

PacBell-SelectNet, San Ramon, CA. Statewide Small Business Development Director

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8. Education

B.S., Production, Operations and Systems Management, California State University, Sacramento

Executive Leadership Coursework, Cornell University Graduate School of Business

Influence and Negotiation Strategies Coursework, Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Jazz Studies, Stanford University Continuing Education

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9. Appendix: The Four Experiences That Led to Co-Founding Digital Island in 1996

From graduating college in 1984 to co-founding Digital Island in 1996, four contributing factors instilled in me the confidence to acquire the infrastructure for building a global network. While thousands possessed individual elements, telecom networking expertise, an identical education, commercial real estate experience, or eCommerce website ownership, it was highly unlikely in 1996 that anyone else combined all four as I did. In hindsight, I don’t believe I could have achieved this without any one of them.

Most crucially, I was the first to take the immense risk of resigning from safe-harbor employment at a Fortune 100 company to co-found the startup, driven by a desire to make the globalization of the internet, web, and eCommerce a reality.

This section details the university and professional experiences that uniquely qualified me to co-found Digital Island and contribute to the internet’s globalization through its infrastructure and services.

The narratives and documents in my book focus on building the physical infrastructure of the Internet and the Web, not the software protocols. This was a deeply human endeavor. The materials highlight network architecture, product development, financial modeling, customer acquisition, contract negotiation, facility procurement, venture capital raising, infrastructure provisioning, and recruiting highly specialized talent.

Before 1996, I never imagined traveling the world to introduce, propose, strategize, evangelize, contract, procure, and finance hundreds of millions of dollars for internet infrastructure. Though the internet and web software stacks were free, billions were needed to network the technology across every continent.

1. My University Education
In 1981, I chose a Bachelor of Science in Production, Operations, and Systems Management, a newly developed program offered by only 11 of 4,000 universities nationwide, designed to bridge business and engineering. Coursework included statistics, economics, finance, computer science, business law, JIT procurement, operations, systems management, and human communications. It aligned precisely with the vision of using emerging technologies to connect the world.

2. Commercial Real Estate Expertise
From 1986 to 1993, I worked as a commercial real estate broker and business park developer, specializing in speculative industrial buildings, precisely the type used for data centers. This proved invaluable in acquiring data centers and colocation infrastructure worldwide for Digital Island. The work demanded a deep understanding of construction costs (steel-reinforced concrete), specialized infrastructure (halon fire suppression, high-capacity amperage, air conditioning), interior improvements, and binding contract terms. Building on that trust, Digital Island’s CEO, CFO, CTO, and CLO granted me carte blanche to negotiate all legal terms and budgets for infrastructure contracts. Throughout my tenure, hundreds of millions in contracts never required peer review of my terms, consents, financial oversight, spending limits, or budgets.

3. Telecommunications Training
After transitioning from commercial real estate in 1994, I received state-of-the-art telecommunications training from Sprint, PacBell, and SelectNet. This gave me the ability to architect infrastructure, financially model investment opportunities, and negotiate the legal terms of our contracts, service agreements, and customer QoS metrics.

4. Early eCommerce Entrepreneurship
In 1995, I launched perfectwheels.com from my home and garage. It outgrew the space and became a brick-and-mortar distribution business, which I later sold to my largest customer, Universal Cycles, after Digital Island was funded. Heavily image-reliant, the site exemplified the struggles of dial-up, “trying to suck a grapefruit through a straw.” Perfect Wheels even became a Smart Valley case study for launching an eCommerce business.

At the end of 1995, only about 23,000 websites existed globally, with roughly 7,000 being non-adult content, and far fewer than that being eCommerce oriented, making me one in a million as a website owner-operator at the start of 1996. That experience gave me invaluable knowledge of electronic media and eCommerce’s potential, and it revealed the internet’s severe limitations: often unusable due to connectivity drops and timeouts. Global adoption hinged entirely on provisioning adequate physical infrastructure.

Leading the internet’s globalization required understanding technological and economic challenges and proposing solutions, articulating investment strategy, negotiating all legal terms for infrastructure contracts, and calculating accurate financials. As head of the company’s most expensive cost center, this high-visibility role demanded precise financial representations for the CFO, executive team, board, venture capitalists, the SEC, and Wall Street.

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10. Exhibits: Consulting Opinions

Adobe Systems. Data Center & eCommerce Platform Assessment. Infrastructure advisory delivered to Adobe’s executive committee prior to capital-expenditure decisions, covering data center redundancy, routing isolation, and high-availability transaction paths. Full assessment

AT&T Securities Litigation. Expert Opinion. Telecom infrastructure expert report prepared for the defense, addressing network build cost, schedule, and disclosure. Full opinion

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11. Record of Coined Terms: Telecom and Internet Lexicon

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12. The Minivan: How I Got Into Telecom

In July 1994 I rode to the Mammoth Mountain Kamikaze downhill in Steve Elston’s Toyota minivan, four of us and the bikes. The carpool itself came out of a hair salon: my wife Wendy worked in Sharon Azevedo’s salon, Sharon mentioned that her husband Jeff was going to Mammoth too, and Sharon suggested to Wendy that I ride along. Jeff Azevedo oversaw PacBell Internet, and Steve, driving, was PacBell’s Internet product manager, a one-man operation in 1994.

Somewhere on that drive Jeff said he was funding a startup in Dublin, California, four miles south of the PacBell office and eight miles south of Alamo, where by total coincidence both Jeff and I lived, and that they could use a guy like me. I told him I could use a new job but I didn’t know shit about the phone. Jeff said: “I got 200,000 people who know everything about the phone. I need a guy who can get shit done.” I said that’s me, hook me up.

Jeff set the interview with Jim Williams, CEO of SelectNet, who hired me as Director of Business Development, supporting PacBell business accounts with call-accounting PCs. SelectNet was my door into telecommunications and the job that led directly to Sprint’s Business division in Walnut Creek, and Sprint’s Walnut Creek office is where the trade-show lead sheet dated May 30, 1996 landed on my desk with Ron Higgins’ name on it.

The chain has no gaps: one race trip in July 1994, the industry introduction that became SelectNet, then a training ride in spring 1995 that produced the broken wheel that became Perfect Wheels, then Sprint, then Digital Island, and the friendship with the man who later showed perfectwheels.com to the world as a case study and joined Digital Island in 1998.

The recruiting eventually ran both directions. In fall 1996 I offered the VP of Marketing role at Digital Island first to Jeff Azevedo, who declined it, and then to Steve, who declined it too before joining in 1998 as director of international sales. Jeff Azevedo’s sentence in that van remains the shortest accurate description of the career that followed: 200,000 people knew everything about the phone, and the job went to the one who could get shit done.