[10849] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Two-way Internet service from Continental
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Martin L. Schoffstall)
Sat Mar 12 11:46:37 1994
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 1994 09:19:12 +0000
From: "Martin L. Schoffstall" <marty@psilink.com>
To: walkerl@iscmed.med.ge.com (Larry Walker), com-priv@psi.com
Cc: schoff@psi.com
> Well I read the press release _VERY_ closely for exactly this issue.
> Way down near the bottom, it mentioned connecting back to the cable
> headend via modem, so I took it that this was just "Stealth Asymmetry":
> say it quietly and late in the article and maybe nobody will notice...
Actually the meta technical term that we all use is "RF Modem" (it does in
fact modulate and demodulate) which gets shortened by press and marketing
weenies to "modem". Cambridge is symmetric and there was no stealth
intentions to my knowledge.
>
> >What is Continental
> >doing differently that enables them to offer symmetric service?
>
> "All" a company has to do, as I understand it, is to replace all their
> existing distribution amps with 2-way amps: Simple matter of money :-)
>
The Cable operators have other compelling economic reasons to replace those
AMPS through time other than "Internet access", the keyword is
"interactivity" whatever that means for your local MSO.
Marty
