[126345] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Dial Concentrators - TNT / APX8000 R.I.P.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (JC Dill)
Wed May 12 12:56:50 2010
Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 09:56:31 -0700
From: JC Dill <jcdill.lists@gmail.com>
CC: nanog@nanog.org
In-Reply-To: <9db7d259df24cfc20e6fde7402bf5335.squirrel@webmail.blakjak.net>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
Mark Foster wrote:
> On Wed, May 12, 2010 4:38 am, Justin Wilson wrote:
>
>> There are those ppl who just want to do e-mail, are comfortable with
>> dial-up, donšt want to pay for than $5-10 for internet, and canšt get
>> anything else.
>>
>
>
> Indeed. The arguments for alternatives based on the fact theyre cheap,
> don't counter the fact that it's not available _everywhere_.
>
> Thus the wider concern I flagged; if the only source for equipment and
> spares is the grey market, aren't the vendors missing the boat on
> something which shouldn't even have a major overhead to maintain?
>
The source for equipment and spares isn't the "grey market" - it's the
USED market. There should be ample used equipment to meet the small
amount of dial-up equipment purchases needs for years to come as many
ISPs phase out dial-up equipment and services and offer their old (still
working but no-longer-needed) dial-up equipment for resale.
> What about developing nations where Internet isn't yet as commonplace as
> it is in the 'west' ?
>
Most developing nations today are leapfrogging right over POTS and
dial-up into a cellular/wireless infrastructure. This is why there is
so little demand for dial-up infrastructure equipment.
If there's a significant need for dial-up equipment and support then at
least one company will provide legacy support, perhaps act as a reseller
to help provision used dial-up equipment and recondition the equipment etc.
You *can* still buy brand new buggy whips:
http://www.jedediahsbuggywhip.com/
http://www.drivingessentials.com/Whips.htm
There are still vendors selling thousands of different types of radio
tubes, even though they haven't been manufactured for many years:
http://www.vacuumtubes.net/
jc
