[614] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: unkind remarks about K-12
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Gunshannon)
Tue Apr 23 15:13:46 1991
From: bill@tuatara.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon)
To: SEAN@dranet.dra.com (Sean Donelan)
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 91 15:11:16 EDT
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <910423135509.202002ae@dranet.dra.com>; from "Sean Donelan" at Apr 23, 91 1:55 pm
Return-Receipt-To: bill@platypus.uofs.edu
According to Sean Donelan:
>
> The IP solution tends be a bit on the high side. Although
> it has fixed costs, its entry costs are a bit on the high side (but falling
> rapidly).
But where is this high initial cost?? Is it the cost of the equipment
or the cost of the dedicated phone lines?? I have just put a remote building
on our campus network and the major cost is the phone line. The router cost
less than $500 and the modems cost about $300. The line cost almost $1000
to install and a couple hundred a month. With this kind of cost, I can see
a lot of schools being hesitant to jump into the cold water. But what about
other technologies?? What about using radio links to provide a starting point
to get their feet wet at a fraction of the cost. If it proves useful then they
can always upgrade to hard-wired links later (but I honestly believe they will
find radio links more than adequete for some time.)
Is there any reason why non of the commercial providers have started looking
at radio as a useful media in small geographic areas (like a school district??)
bill
--
Bill Gunshannon | If this statement wasn't here,
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