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Xref: sserve comp.sys.powerpc:34667 comp.sys.intel:32216 comp.unix.bsd:16248 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:8203 comp.unix.sys5.r4:9326 comp.unix.misc:16171 comp.os.linux.development:23624 comp.os.linux.misc:35718 comp.os.386bsd.development:3247 comp.os.386bsd.misc:5491 comp.os.misc:3830 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msunews!gmi!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.mathworks.com!panix!not-for-mail From: berke@panix.com (Wayne Berke) Newsgroups: comp.sys.powerpc,comp.sys.intel,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.sys5.r4,comp.unix.misc,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.development,comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.misc Subject: Re: flat rates for Internet/phone (Re: X on dial-in) Date: 24 Feb 1995 17:05:25 -0500 Organization: yes Lines: 22 Message-ID: <3ill75$jtv@panix.com> References: <D3s19v.4M7@pe1chl.ampr.org> <root.793371940@c00037-5pa.eos.ncsu.edu> <D4DH09.BAo@pe1chl.ampr.org> <phrD4G1np.MoG@netcom.com> <3ikt72$jo5@newshost.lanl.gov> NNTP-Posting-Host: panix.com In <3ikt72$jo5@newshost.lanl.gov> crs@beta.lanl.gov (Charlie Sorsby) writes: >What fraction of users use their phones 24 hours a day for SLIP or >any other purpose? >What would happen to your phone bill if, say, 90% of users were to >do so? 80%? 60%? Even 20%? >Surely you don't believe that (flat-rate) phone bills wouldn't >increase if a significant fraction of subscribers were to use their >phones 24-hours per day. True enough. But note that this is only because telephone lines are circuit rather than packet switched. That is, each connection must reserve some fraction of the total bandwidth even when there is no data being transferred. If the network ever becomes fully packet-switched, idle connections would not incur any bandwidth overhead at all and it wouldn't matter how many people had 24-hour SLIP lines (unless they had cron jobs to set off massive ftp transfers). -- Wayne Berke berke@panix.com