[1712] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
What constitutes high speed networking?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (CK.MAN@rxg.xerox.com)
Fri Dec 13 08:39:12 1991
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1991 04:53:41 PST
From: CK.MAN@rxg.xerox.com
To: com-priv@psi.com
Reply-To: CK.MAN@rxg.xerox.com
Ok then (to all those who accuse me of anti-euorpean/japan/whomever bias) can
we define high speed networking as:
a) A big fat data pipe with lots of users, most of whom get somewhere around
2.4 kbs
or
b) COMMONLY available, INEXPENSIVELY priced, RELIABLE data comms of at least
56kbs DIRECT to the end user.
Loaded words there. Is high speed networking simply T1 or better links? What
good are those links when they get so saturated that no one can function? And
what good is all that bandwidth if the user only sees a fraction? These pipes
can be in Michigan, Finland, Japan or the Upper Volta for all I care. If the
END USER doesn't see the speed, what good is it other than to allow more
frustrated end users to connect (and enjoy group frustration)?
Lets not stand around and say `I know a guy who has T1 to his desktop' or `I
know an entire office that has 64Kbs to their desktops'. So. How MANY users
have T1 to their desktop? And how MANY even have 64 Kbs? I know these guys and
offices too. And they are in the minority of users. A very tiny group they are.
Give me enough cash and I'll build you a global multi-gigabyte data net. But
who could afford to pay the charges you have to set to recover your investment?
To spread out the cost, you have to chop up your gigabyte net into tiny little
slivers that institutions and end users can afford. And what do you have. Not a
gigabyte net any longer. You have lots of users supporting a single costly
infrastructure.
And, because of that cost, all of your eggs are in one basket. There isn't any
investment cash to build other, competing networks which might drive costs down
and reliability / availability up. Plus R&D on advances in technology.
One of the EFFs' points is that speed and throughput has to get to the END USER
or all the backbones in the world really don't mean much.
