[1082] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Clarification of chron-nren-tabular
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Joe Abernathy)
Wed Jul 24 18:01:22 1991
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 91 16:47:20 CDT
From: edtjda@magic322.chron.com (Joe Abernathy)
To: com-priv@psi.com
Thanks to several of you who have pointed out a problem with the graphic
that accompanied my recent story.
First and foremost, let me urge that you not take too seriously those numbers
or any others that get tossed around at this point. We aren't going to know
what will be spent on the NREN, if anything, for a full five years from
today, if then.
Why the graphic then? To give a feel for the legislation, to show the agencies
that are involved (fairly revealing to a non-expert), and to shed some light
on the fact that roughly half the cost of the hpca is not being discussed as
though it was actually a part of the package. After spending over a week
researching and talking with people in and out of Washington, we determined
that the intent of the legislation really is to increase spending to about
a billion dollars a year, as the chart suggests.
The problem is that the chart does indeed suggest all the money will be
spent on networking, and that's not the case. The story does point this out,
but taken out of that context, the chart doesn't make a good case for itself.
I do still have the feeling after talking with many of you that much of
the related infrastructure that money will go to is necessary to build the
kind of network under discussion, since fast enough computers and switches
apparently don't yet exist to handle gigabit speeds. Thus its inclusion.
Please correct me if this doesn't match your perception.
As for the oversight, the Chronicle regrets the error.
