[9929] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: IIA Breaks Out
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lisa Losito)
Thu Jan 27 12:25:25 1994
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 12:24:13 -0500 (EST)
From: Lisa Losito <lisa@access1.digex.net>
To: "Brock N. Meeks" <brock@well.sf.ca.us>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <199401270050.QAA23405@well.sf.ca.us>
On Wed, 26 Jan 1994, Brock N. Meeks wrote:
>
>
> Jacking in from the "You Gotta See This to Believe It" Port:
>
>
> Money for Nothing and the Bits Are Free
> =======================================
>
> Washington, DC -- Here's the deal: The Internet is being held hostage by a
> community of entrenched techno-elitists.
Brock, you've made my day...and I'm sure the rest of the
"Techno-elitists" holding the Internet hostage with guns
aimed at critical routers are equally amused.
Am I missing something? $12 per hour for 800 service...Holonet for example
charges (says the O'reilly book) between $2.00 and $8.00 per hour for PDN
service, and between $2 and $4 per hour in fees. At it's highest
that equals $12 per hour during peak, right? Such a deal...PDN's aren't
everywhere though. $8-10 dollar/hr for 800 service and $20 per month account
fees seem pretty typical (dial-n-cerf, jvnc). My math skills seem a bit weak,
but I don't see a clear saving if I use more than a couple of hours per month.
If I check my mail for 20 minutes a day, IIA exactly matches what you can
already get elsewhere. Sounds terribly philanthropic to me. They donate a
portion of their income to buy Internet access for starving Sudanese children I
guess.
>
> The organization was swamped with applications, some 40,000 have flooded
> in since November, Robbins said. But only 16,000 have actually been given
> accounts. He says they're working on the backlog.
>
If I have to wait for IIA to liberate me, guess I'll be waiting a long
time. I'm sure this means if I have a problem they'll be REAL easy to reach
by phone. Just the way to introduce the "unwashed masses" to the
terrifying Internet environment. I'm sure the average citizen would be
able to use the Internet just fine without having anyone to answer
questions like :" How do I turn on my modem?"
I'm so disappointed, they promised us DC folks THOUSANDS of free local
dialins. Guess it's easier to promise then deliver. I was even going to
learn to MUD just for the occasion. ;)
Lisa Losito
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