brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) (12/18/89)
Bell has announced that they are dropping the cost of 56 kbit lines by a whopping 70%. While they will still be a lot more than similar lines in the USA, they won't be 10 times as much any more. I don't know if the discount applies to lines to the USA, but if it does, that might make it possible for a bunch of us to join in with the private TCP/IP net that UUNET is starting. By putting in a Toronto-Washington line at 56 kbits (or slower if that's become proportionately cheaper -- I think we could get by with even 9600) and perhaps a Toronto-Waterloo or other lines, we could get a bunch of companies together to share the cost, and might see it become quite reasonable -- probably a fair bit less than the $1500/month that Onet needs, albiet with a bit less bandwidth. This tcp/ip net would allow any traffic, commercial or otherwise. Links are already going in to Boston and Silicon Valley, and it will be linked to NSFnet, although any traffic over that gateway would have to be to or from an authorized NSFnet member, within the guidelines of that net. Anybody interested? -- Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
jstewart@sce.carleton.ca (John Stewart) (12/21/89)
I'm glad to hear that Bell has dropped their rates for 56kb lines. It may not be as significant as you think, because another company INSINC has been selling 56kb lines for considerably less than Bell (I think as much as 60% less). I think you have several misconceptions about ONet 1) The highest line speeds in ONet are 56kb and these only occur where several ONet members share a link. Several ONet members only get a 19.2kb connection. 2) The supposed high cost of belonging to ONet is just a reflection of the real costs of leased lines and routers. Leased line charges are by far the largest item in ONet's budget. How will your costs be lower if you set up your own network? I do see the point you are trying to make -- why should a small company that isn't going to generate much traffic pay as much to belong to ONet as a large university or company? There are people within ONet who are aware of this problem, though as yet no solution has been proposed. I think it would be counterproductive for another TCP/IP network to be setup in Ontario. Working towards a system for allowing organizations such as yours to join ONet would be more beneficial in the long run. -- "Support the President's War On Long Usenet Signatures"
brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) (12/23/89)
(I would like to join the war against 90 character text lines!) I would like to see ONET set up a policy for smaller firms, and have asked about it several times, as have others. Please let us know if anything is going to happen. Right now $1500/month is too much for me, $500 per month would be ok. But there is another reason for the private net. Some of the traffic I intend to send might be too commercial for Onet, which is a research/education net. Or does Onet not put any restrictions on what traffic may transit it? So a cheaper net with no restrictions would appeal to me, and others, I would hope. Also, we could cut the cost by starting without routers. The biggest site in town gets the direct connection to the outside world. The price they pay is either a router or some serial ports on one of their systems, and extra traffic on that system. Over my link, I would feed news, do SMTP and very rarely do FTP. This would not put on sufficient load to require a router, i think. It will cost a few CPU cycles at the place where I have my SLIP link, but not that many. When last checked, the line from Toronto to DC was $4K/month. I don't know if this is one of the prices to have come down. But if 10 companies shared it in the Toronto area, it could be pretty cheap. Local 9600 bps leased lines are very cheap these days, at least where I live. I pay about $40/month for the one from my office to home. Anyway, interest in this idea was small, although I heard that some other people were looking into it independently, but I haven't heard back from them. So it is no likely to happen right away. I would love to join ONET, I need no router to join as a leaf, so if they can come up with something in the $500/month, and it's clear that my sort of traffic is ok, let's go! -- Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473