sda@atexrd.UUCP (Stephen Ayers) (10/16/87)
Has anyone tried using Telebit's Trailblazer on overseas
dialup lines? In particular to Germany, England and Italy.
What has been the actual throughput? How would the cost
compare between dialup and X.25?
Thanks in advance!
--
Steve Ayers, Atex, Inc., A Kodak Company
{ll-xn,genrad,kodak,munsell}!atexrd!sda
+1 617 276-7384csg@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) (10/21/87)
In article <99@sda.atexrd.UUCP> sda@atexrd.UUCP (Stephen Ayers) writes: >Has anyone tried using Telebit's Trailblazer on overseas >dialup lines? In particular to Germany, England and Italy. >What has been the actual throughput? Well to begin with, the Trailblazer is not legal in most European countries; I believe they are approved in the UK and Sweeden, but few besides that. Telebit has indicated that they have no hopes whatsoever of being approved in Germany. The Trailblazer has been used successfully between the U.S. and Australia (10Kbps), Japan, Venezuala, Argentina (6Kbps), Canada (12Kbps), and Mexico (12Kbps). Actually, from here, Mexico and Canada seem to be much better than New Jersey. :-) We tried the U.K., but the two modems refused to synch up. That was on firmware rev 2.0; the situation today would be different. >How would the cost compare between dialup and X.25? I dunno if you've done the arithmetic or not, but if you do you'll be shocked. X.25 Public Data Networks are horribly expensive. Call the U.K. via plain ol' AT&T direct dial using a Hayes 1200, and if you can get a reliable connection you'll be sending bytes much cheaper than via Telenet or Tymnet.* Of course, the catch phrase is "reliable." From anywhere in the U.S. to anywhere in the U.K., getting a usable call out of Bell 212A is a less than 50-50 shot. We use Telenet, and connections are always flawless; the cost is worth it to us. Going the other way, from Europe to the U.S., X.25 is a much better deal -- because their telephone rates are four times AT&T's, and their X.25 rates are typically 10% to 30% lower. But even still, if the Trailblazer gets anything over 500cps, you're still way ahead. <csg> *For the curious: X.25 to the U.K. costs $12 per kilosegment, which is 64K bytes under ideal conditions. AT&T direct dial is $.99, $.75, and $.60 per minute daytime, afternoons, and nights, respectively. So the break-even data rates are 90cps, 68cps, and 55cps. This ignores startup charges for bok bk
sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) (10/22/87)
In article <8676@pyramid.pyramid.com> csg@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) writes: >Well to begin with, the Trailblazer is not legal in most European countries; I >believe they are approved in the UK and Sweeden, but few besides that. Telebit >has indicated that they have no hopes whatsoever of being approved in Germany. We have had very strong indications of exactly the opposite, that Telebit is currently undertaking to get the Trailblazer approved in Germany, and where very close to being sucessfull! -- {ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision,uunet}!van-bc!Stuart.Lynne Vancouver,BC,604-937-7532
dfk@cwi.nl (Daniel Karrenberg) (10/27/87)
> Well to begin with, the Trailblazer is not legal in most European > countries; I believe they are approved in the UK and Sweeden, but few > besides that. Telebit has indicated that they have no hopes whatsoever > of being approved in Germany. They are approved in the Netherlands and we will hopefully be testing them soon. I'll report. As to Germany the remarks are -sadly enough- very very true. But less and less Germans care ..... -- Daniel Karrenberg Future Net: <dfk@cwi.nl> CWI, Amsterdam Oldie Net: mcvax!dfk Because It's There Net: DFK@MCVAX
trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey ) (10/29/87)
In article <362@sering.cwi.nl> dfk@cwi.nl (Daniel Karrenberg) writes: > >As to Germany the remarks are -sadly enough- very very true. >But less and less Germans care ..... I heard that Atari's modem (only 1200 baud) just recently got approved by the Bundepost (sp?) in Germany...does the post office in germany actually have that much say over what types of modems people use? (I had heard that they run the phone company...think I will avoid the obvious joke). -Todd Burkey trb@stag.UUCP
randolph%cognito@Sun.COM (Randolph Fritz <SQA>) (10/30/87)
Todd Burkey (trb@stag.UUCP) writes:
I heard that Atari's modem (only 1200 baud) just recently got approved
by the Bundepost (sp?) in Germany...does the post office in germany
actually have that much say over what types of modems people use? (I
had heard that they run the phone company...think I will avoid the
obvious joke).
Yes. The Bundespost is a PTT (post-telephone-telegraph); one of the European
government communication firms. They provide telephone service (and determine
what kind of equipment may be connected to their network), telegraph service
(and rent you the telex), radio (and approve radios), and television (ditto).
Similar organizations exist throughout Europe; the Bundespost is just more
restrictive than most.
--
Randolph Fritz
sun!randolph
randolph@sun.comkraut@ut-ngp.UUCP (10/31/87)
> I heard that Atari's modem (only 1200 baud) just recently got approved > by the Bundepost (sp?) in Germany...does the post office in germany > actually have that much say over what types of modems people use? in Germany, you cannot connect ANYTHING to the phone-lines that isn't from the Post Office. An answering machine, even. Phones are not plugged into an outlet, but *HARD-WIRED* into a connecter which you are not not *ALLOWED* to open. Is this Atari modem conencted with an accoustic coupler (hard to believe at 1200 Baud) or how else? PS: when the Bundespost goes after you, think of the worst you have heard the IRS can do to people here. We are talking jail and heavy fines, storming into your house, intimidation, harassment .... No, I didn't mean to say that the IRS ever does that .... now that I think about it (the Bundespost also monitors communications in close cooperation with the German NSA) ........ ... I didn't post this article ... ((-: -- kraut@ngp.utexas.edu
hgp@houem.UUCP (#H.PAGE) (11/04/87)
In article <250@stag.UUCP>, trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey ) writes: > In article <362@sering.cwi.nl> dfk@cwi.nl (Daniel Karrenberg) writes: > > > >As to Germany the remarks are -sadly enough- very very true. > >But less and less Germans care ..... > > I heard that Atari's modem (only 1200 baud) just recently got approved > by the Bundepost (sp?) in Germany...does the post office in germany > actually have that much say over what types of modems people use? (I > had heard that they run the phone company...think I will avoid the > obvious joke). Yes, the German Post Office runs the phone system. Although extremely efficient by European standards (my new service ONLY took two months), I was extremely surprised to find that their subscriber records were not on line (this was 1982). At the time, customer premise equipment could only be leased from the Bundespost (Carterfone, who's Carterfons??? ;-)). I think this is starting to change at glacial speeds. Everything cost about twice as much as it did in the USA and the bill does NOT itemize one's long distance calls, One can, however, lease a phone with a meter that tells how many units have been used. -- Howard G. Page AT&T BTL, HO 3E-537 +1 201 949-0113, ..!ihnp4!houem!hgp
jack@swlabs.UUCP (Jack Bonn) (11/06/87)
In article <1021@houem.UUCP>, hgp@houem.UUCP (#H.PAGE) writes: > Yes, the German Post Office runs the phone system. > > Everything cost about twice as much as it did in the USA and the bill > does NOT itemize one's long distance calls, One can, however, lease a > phone with a meter that tells how many units have been used. I was working on a voice switch for the European market and was very surprised about the lack of detailed billing that is done in Europe in general. I thought that our switch could provide this feature and beat the competition to the marketplace. But I was informed by some of the "tech transferees" (Europeans temporarily working on the project) that the customers preferred the status quo. The idea was that if the information was not kept _anywhere_, then the right to keep these records private couldn't be violated. I started to think how easy it is to get a court order here in the USA and the idea sounded better and better to me. As an aside, I heard that the people in the UK had made a serious improvement to their scheme of hand reading the meters in the COs. They mounted a camera on a mechanism that would automatically position it over each meter and take a picture (actually 2 or 4 at a time). Then the human would later read the picture and key it in. When I contrast that with the level of billing features available even in small PBXs here in the US, it made me smile. -- Jack Bonn, <> Software Labs, Ltd, Box 451, Easton CT 06612 uunet!swlabs!jack