[9271] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Cost vs benefit of internet services
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barry Shein)
Mon Dec 27 16:49:14 1993
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1993 16:48:34 -0500
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
To: bcox@gmu.edu
Cc: com-priv@psi.com, digex@ss1.digex.net
In-Reply-To: bcox@gmu.edu (Brad Cox's message of Mon, 27 Dec 1993 16:21:35 -0500 <9312272121.AA23764@mason1.gmu.edu>
>From: bcox@gmu.edu (Brad Cox @ GMU/PSOL)
>Thanks; that's a *big* help. I'd imagined that registering IP addresses
>with the DNS might be involved too, but I guess the dedicated dialin modem
>works around that.
>
>No, that doesn't make sense either. Why isn't a modem pool as satisfactory
>for SLIP/PPP as conventional dialup?
It isn't, such services exist, and they tend to cost a lot less than
dedicated modems (well, depending on usage pattern.)
A dedicated modem is like a reserved parking spot (um, in Boston add
"with several guards all armed with automatic weapons and shoot to
kill orders"), you can be assured you can use it when you want it.
Add to that something like a Netblazer which dials on demand as soon
as someone types something like "telnet out.there" and it's getting
pretty close to a leased-line service with somewhat lower costs
(depending on various things.) A modem pool can give back busy signals
etc which may not be quite up to what someone wants. So, ya makes yer
choices and ya pays yer money.
>I'm still puzzled. There's more than an order of magnitude difference in
>price. But you described only a 2-fold difference in hardware costs and a
>(huge; 2x? 5x?) difference in support costs. They don't add up to 10x,
>unless you claiming support alone is 10x.
Where do you see an order of magnitude price difference? I don't see
that.
Are you sure you're not comparing apples to oranges: Dedicated line
services to modem pool interactive services?
Compare modem pool IP services to modem pool interactive services and
the price difference makes your analysis above look like you've
discovered a great bargain.
-Barry Shein
Software Tool & Die | bzs@world.std.com | uunet!world!bzs
Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD
