[2742] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: PSI Enhances PSILink Service, Adds Support for Wireless Data Networks
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Martin Lee Schoffstall)
Tue May 5 20:23:30 1992
To: jqj@duff.uoregon.edu
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 05 May 92 15:08:23 MDT."
Date: Tue, 05 May 92 20:21:12 -0400
From: "Martin Lee Schoffstall" <schoff@psi.com>
This is surely market-dependent.
yes and no. the two major national roaming packet data networks cost somewhere
between $.25 and $.75 per kilobyte. The next tier of suppliers doesn't exist
and won't for probably 2 years.
Personally, I would *much* rather have a
14.4Kbps intermittent IP link to the Internet (that I could run the
application protocols *I* care about over) than a PSIlink connection in
which I am constrained to the protocols PSI thinks are important.
So would I personally, then i could use pc/tcp or tcp connectII and be a network
geek. Unfortunately my expense account can't afford the rates of above. But
I'd probably be real motivated to tune my tcp implementation so it didn't do
too many retransmissions and such. i'd also probably be unhappy to get ICMP
ECHO Requests from JRandoms on the Internet.
but the market for geeks like me is small. so we need something for joe
connsumer who might tool around in microsoft works or clarisworks if they
were pushing the edge of the envelope. they wouldn't touch pc/tcp or
tcp connect II if you paid them too. so you need the equivalent of microsoft
works for networking.
Meanwhile, we make tight use of the expensive channel and get the job done.
With our room temperature IQ's we flip coins and come up with EMAIL and FTP,
could have been NTP and whois but the wind was blowing right.
If you believe the pundits, wireless messaging (good we did email) is a $10
billion dollar industry by the end of the decade. Are they right? If you
include one way messaging (paging), I think it is low. But by contrast some
of the bigger RBOC's are grossing $1 billion/year on cellular - the only
current mass market wireless market.
That
translates into my being willing to pay more for such a service. But I
might not be the modal consumer.
you'll definitely pay more. But your budget is probably larger than mine.
Marty
