[2126] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Trickle Down? How About Bubble Up?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vince Fuller)
Mon Jan 27 20:35:36 1992
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 92 17:34:11 PST
From: Vince Fuller <vaf@Valinor.Stanford.EDU>
To: Edward Vielmetti <emv@msen.com>
Cc: stef@nma.com, com-priv@uu.psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of Mon, 27 Jan 92 19:03:57 -0500
The real issue in all of this is policy and regulation, *not*
technology. Many current mid-level connection policies actively
discourage development of these sorts of services, either by
pricing the lowest end connection out of the market or by simply
refusing to attach people who want to build nets like this.
(CIX members seem to be better at this though even there there
are known problems with some early efforts.)
I think you are trying to attribute the lack of cheap, low-end service to an
imagined conspiracy among "mid-level connection" providers which simply doesn't
exist. Rather than attempting to "discourage development of these sorts of
services", we (BARRNet) have been working hard for some time to establish such
a service. It has been our experience that that, given available technology for
running SLIP/PPP over low-speed/dialup lines, it is extremely difficult, if
not impossible, for us to offer service at a cheap price which also pays for
itself. Note that BARRNet is a non-profit organization, so it's not like we're
trying to gouge the market, either.
We have found that offering low-speed service is exceptionally labor-intensive,
given the difficulties involved in system management and training, and requires
a substantial infrastructure investment both in computer hardware (banks of
modems, server systems to offer mail-spooling, domain service, etc.) and in
personnel time and expertise (someone has to learn how to configure those
client sendmail.cf files, handle domain database updates for the clients,
get UUCP-over-TCP running, teach client personnel how to install their
SLIP/PPP software (which if cheap is probably unsupported), etc., etc.).
Are you sure you aren't underestimating the true costs of providing such a
service?
--Vince
