[8727] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: The Merit IBM Alliance Moves to Japan
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David R Conrad)
Wed Dec 1 21:56:38 1993
To: sdw@meaddata.com (Stephen Williams)
Cc: davidc@iij.ad.jp (David R Conrad), dave@oldcolo.com, cook@path.net,
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 01 Dec 1993 11:49:39 EST."
Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1993 11:51:15 +0900
From: David R Conrad <davidc@iij.ad.jp>
>I have friends in Okinawa, JP who is interested in getting an Internet
>connection for business or personal use. Probably they could start
>out with a dialup account or run uucp locally with telnet/slip.
As I understand it, Okinawa is seriously bandwidth constrained...
>Could you (plural) please summarize current availability and price so
>that I can recommend something to them?
After doing a little checking around, it appears there is no public IP
connectivity into Okinawa. In fact, even the University there is
connected via UUCP. The telephone rates for a call from Tokyo to
Okinawa are (according to NTT):
8 am - 7 pm 60 yen/min
7 pm - 11 pm 33 yen/min
11 pm - 8 am 27 yen/min
(Comparison: Japan -> US is around 170/140/100 per minute via KDD, ITC
and ITJ are usually about 5-10% cheaper).
As for IIJs services and rates, I'd prefer not using mailing lists for
(too blatant :-)) advertisements, so if you'd like to know our rates,
finger info@iij.ad.jp or send mail to the same address.
>It would be nice if they had the option of setting up a local bbs
>style server with email, netnews, and archives, but I wouldn't be
>surprised if regulatory/contractual obligations prevent that.
I believe getting a regular type 2 license is not all that difficult.
With a regular type 2, you'd be able to offer services domestically
(with certain limitations on the total bandwidth offered I believe).
>Can standard US style modems be used?
Yes, standard US style modems are usable in Japan, IIJ in fact uses
Telebit T2500s and T3000s. However, to be legal, the modems must be
approved by the carrier and carry an approval stamp. This basically
means that you have to buy the modem in Japan to be fully legal.
-drc
