[12768] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Ethernet to Home...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Roger Bohn)
Sat May 28 07:21:35 1994
Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 13:53:13 -0800
To: George Herbert <gwh@crl.com>, com-priv@psi.com
From: Rbohn@ucsd.edu (Roger Bohn)
Cc: gwh@crl.com
At 12:01 AM 5/27/94 -0700, George Herbert wrote:
>Just to bounce a concept off you, imagine that tomorrow I was to
>announce a service provider selling 10BT ethernet connections from
>your house to the internet (not shared lines, either, private) for
>$100 install and $35/month. What percentage of the population would
>buy the service? What if you add a $100 package with a cheap PC ethernet
>card and IP software bundled and applications like Mosaic and FTP ...
>
>-george william herbert
>gwh@crl.com Speaking only for myself
Speaking in terms of what I know, I think this would be met very
enthusiastically by the people I work with.
Most everyone at UCSD now has ethernet links (via a T1, I assume) to
Internet, and Mosaic is spreading rapidly. We also have lots of in-house
information, e.g. excellent on-line library material. I would estimate
that half of the people who use these at their desktop would want it at
home. (Including staff) A lot of students would probably go for it too; my
students are technophobic, but half of them now have a home machine and a
modem, just to get into our school's net. The bundled software, btw, is
essential. Without it, you need a much more knowledgeable customer.
I imagine the situation for other knowledge workers will be similar. The
diffusion will be via companies which get hooked; thereafter their
employees will go for it.
Let me know where to sign up!
P.S. Please sell a Mac version without ethernet. My home Mac came with
built-in ethernet.
Roger Bohn Rbohn@ucsd.edu
International Relations and Pacific Studies
University of California, San Diego
Phone (619) 534-7630
Fax (619) 534-3939
