[633] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Perhaps dismissal ...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kent W. England)
Thu Apr 25 09:57:18 1991
From: "Kent W. England" <kwe2@BBN.COM>
To: lws@capybara.comm.wang.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9104242231.AA00699@capybara.comm.wang.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 91 09:46:58 EDT
>From: lws@capybara.comm.wang.com (Lyle Seaman)
>Here's another idea, not as useful, but cheaper and easier to
>start up. Lots of TV stations go off the air for several hours
>early in the morning...
I think this technical problem has been solved at least twice before.
There once was (still is?) a service called "StarNet" that broadcast
USENET news in the WTBS signal, which is satellite distributed to cable
TV companies throughout the country. The subscriber used a little box
and a PC to monitor this data signal on his local cable and pick off
news articles of interest. I think this sort of thing has also been
done with financial data in FM radio channels, much like elevator music
is supplied to paying subscribers.
There have also been many abortive or unsatisfactory attempts to use
CATV systems for multi-access data networks. We don't need to try to
reinvent those histories again, or even re-discuss the myriad reasons
that that technology simply doesn't match a market need.
--Kent
