[2166] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
low-end users
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barry Shein)
Tue Jan 28 21:02:04 1992
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 92 20:57:57 -0500
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
To: vaf@Valinor.Stanford.EDU
Cc: dcrocker@Mordor.Stanford.EDU, rma@tsar.cc.rochester.edu, bjp@sura.net,
In-Reply-To: Vince Fuller's message of Tue, 28 Jan 92 17:16:24 PST <CMM.0.90.2.696647784.vaf@Valinor.Stanford.EDU>
>Hmm. From what I recall of our talks with public schools and libraries, they
>do NOT consider $500-$1000/month cheap (even if it does translate into only
>$5/month/person). I suspect they'd rather hear numbers more like $1000/YEAR
>for a link to the Internet (which is close to our current low-end offering)
>
> --Vince
Point well taken. But to get that $1000/year what sort of hardware and
software is needed? I'm talking anything from $50 terminals on up,
certainly very low-end PC's which could even support a friendly user
interface.
I'll guess that to achieve similar overall costs we'd both end up with
about the same system other than where the "centralized" system is
(either in their space or someone else's) and who ends up getting
stuck administering that system? And where is the economy of scale?
That is, hanging 32 seats off a stat-mux or similar versus hanging
them off a local system which has a SLIP connection (otherwise you'd
need 32 SLIP lines and I bet that costs more than $1000/year.)
I think you need to describe what you're describing to one more level
of detail, let's use the example of 32 seats in a (library or school.)
And with what I'm proposing they get to play with a T1 line, the 9600b
(e.g.) shared line is only used for "terminal" update and keystrokes
(ok, you want more than 9600 for 32 lines, but not a lot more,
certainly 56kb is plenty and that is only the dumbest 56K line to
support something like a terminal server remotely.)
Here's my budget, assumes organization owns 32 PC's or equivalent.
Startup:
32 line terminal server 3000
56Kb line install 1000
DSU/CSU 2500 (2, maybe this is a lil low)
Wiring 500
People time 1000 (setup of this is rather easy)
Total 8000
Monthly:
56Kb line 400
Service charge 500
Total 900
Remember that this 56kb line is not an attachment to the internet,
it's just a way to flatten phone costs for a bunch of seats and would
appear as a bunch of, essentially, serial dialups to a remote, large
system which is hooked up to the internet.
Dave Crocker would protest the "dumb" nature of this. I'll claim it's
better than what they have now. The question is whether we're trying
to give them whizzy user interfaces (some of which can be done on this
sort of thing anyhow) or access to the net and information and
communication? The point is, what are the services being offered?
And if that's too expensive, and alternatives are more expensive, then
hey, we haven't gotten very far have we?
-Barry Shein
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