*BSD News Article 43082


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Newsgroups: comp.dcom.frame-relay,comp.dcom.isdn,comp.unix.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: flat rates for Internet/phone (Re: X on dial-in)
Message-ID: <3MAR199514161563@eisner.decus.org>
From: holdrege@eisner.decus.org (Matt Holdrege)
Date: 3 Mar 1995 14:16 -0500
References: <D3s19v.4M7@pe1chl.ampr.org> <root.793371940@c00037-5pa.eos.ncsu.edu> 
 <D4DH09.BAo@pe1chl.ampr.org> <phrD4G1np.MoG@netcom.com> <3il2e7$36c@fieldday.fieldday.mn.org>
Distribution: world
Organization: DECUServe
Summary: Modems and ISDN are circuit switched and use more bandwidth than FR.
Nntp-Posting-Host: eisner.decus.org
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1  
Lines: 19

>>In article <D4DH09.BAo@pe1chl.ampr.org>,
>>I think there's a different kind of naivite going on in this thread
>>which is that people have forgotten the cliche that the world's largest
>>computer is the phone network.  Well, the cost of computing (CPU
>>cycles, disk space, LAN's) has dropped by a factor of at least 1000
>>in the past couple decades, but the cost of phone calls hasn't
>>changed much at all.  So there is either some gross inefficiency
>>or some huge profits (or a combination) happening at the telco's.
>>The Internet is beginning to make the disparity more visible,
>>as more and more ordinary people's traffic is moved on high volume
>>channels whose costs have a (slightly) closer relationship with
>>the actual cost of creating bandwidth from point A to point B.

I think you are forgetting the billions that it costs to continually upgrade
the cable plant. The cost to lay thousands of miles of fiber hasn't gotten
any cheaper. Most telco's still use union labor for that. Another cost that
has gone up (especially with ISDN) is software. Ask AT&T how much they charge
for "Right to Use" the ISDN software on a 5ESS.