gp@sys.uea.ac.uk (George Papadopoulos CMP RA) (06/06/89)
I often here the expression "bitnet service is free of charge" in the sense that if you are a member of a university you don't have to pay anything to register and use it (as opposed, say, to using ARPA or UUCP). But surely someone pays for the provision of this service. So where does the money come from? George -- George A. Papadopoulos, RA, ! Tel: +44-603-56161, Ext. 2692 SYS, UEA, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK ! e-mail: gp@sys.uea.ac.uk Disclaimer: "Reality is determined either by majority vote or government grant, with the latter holding veto power over the former" L. Ron Hubbard, Mission Earth
GA.JRG@forsythe.stanford.edu (June Genis) (06/09/89)
In article <594@sys.uea.ac.uk>, gp@sys.uea.ac.uk (George Papadopoulos CMP RA) writes: >I often here the expression "bitnet service is free of charge" in the sense >that if you are a member of a university you don't have to pay anything to >register and use it (as opposed, say, to using ARPA or UUCP). >But surely someone pays for the provision of this service. So where does >the money come from? > >George In the US BITNET membership is by institution, i.e Stanford University is a member of BITNET which currenly has about 5 registered BITNET nodes. We pay one membership fee regardless of the number of nodes we have. The fee is based on the budget of the university which is used as an indication of the *potential* of an institution to utilize the network. (Needless to say Stanford is at the top of the pay scale :-) June Genis, BITNET Inforep for Stanord University
bob@tinman.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) (06/15/89)
In article <594@sys.uea.ac.uk> gp@sys.uea.ac.uk (George Papadopoulos CMP RA) writes:
I often here the expression "bitnet service is free of charge" in
the sense that if you are a member of a university you don't have
to pay anything to register and use it (as opposed, say, to using
ARPA or UUCP).
But surely someone pays for the provision of this service. So where
does the money come from?
There are various ways of getting your bits passed from hither to yon,
with various attendant tradeoffs.
The cheapest way to get connected is likely via a dialup modem
attached to any computer that can do the UUCP protocols. This has low
initial cost but possibly high incremental cost per unit of service if
you must pay long-distance telephone charges. "Connected" in this
case means for electronic mail and possibly for news. With the low
initial cost comes low bandwidth and limited types of service, and
with the high incremental cost comes discouragement to expand its use.
This sort of service is in regular daily use on several continents.
Rather, as organizations "outgrow" their low-initial-cost connections
they often find reasons to move to connections involving higher
initial costs.
At the other end of the scale would come the purchase of a pair of
high-speed modems or fiber drivers, and the installation of a
telephone line permanently dedicated to digital service or perhaps an
optical fiber or microwave or sattelite link or the like. This has
high initial cost but often zero incremental cost per unit of service,
once the facility is installed. "Connected" in this case means for
all the above, plus all the advantages of universal connectivity.
With the higher initial cost and cost of maintenance of the media
comes higher bandwidth and more availability. In the IP Internet,
file transfers, remote terminals, highly-accurate timekeeping,
widely-distributed computing, and a host of other applications present
themselves, and are in regular daily use on several continents - often
in real-time coordination with users on other continents!
In either case, whatever money is required for the installation and
maintenance of the connection is provided by the sponsoring
institutions at either end of whatever sort of wire is involved. The
"free of charge" phrase refers to the incremental cost that is visible
to each individual user as a direct effect of his making use of the
medium.