KLH@nic.ddn.mil (Ken Harrenstien) (06/10/90)
>In the meantime, was I'd really like to see is an ASCII-TDD relay on >the net somewhere. Imagine if I could Telnet to CA and then use a >dial-out modem/TDD to place a call to a TDD! We did this in 1978 as part of the Deafnet project (PDP-11, V6.5 Unix, Arpanet host #2, Vadic rack/dialer with custom 103/W modems). It was indeed very useful, but the dialout capability was restricted to project staff (as opposed to normal users) since we had no easy way of connecting the resulting bills with specific individuals, or recovering the costs thereof. The telco would have to provide billing info in some machine-readable form before a third party could operate such a service. Given that, a commercial value-added-net (VAN) like Tymnet/Telenet could certainly install relays if they wanted to. So could the telco itself for that matter, although you'd be paying by connect time rather than amount of data. Considering that the Calif Relay Service still has not succeeded in setting up a billing system for interstate calls, it doesn't look like anyone else will have much luck for the time being. >I tried to convince the Administration at >Brandeis Univ. to install a TDD/modem on their mainframe, so that the >whole campus would have TDD facilites. They even bought the modem. Just curious, do you know what modem they bought? Only a handful of models have ever existed. Ken