brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (11/26/85)
Thanks to those who responded. I may not have gotten all responses as I have been having mailer problems that drop messages on the floor. Anyway, of those who responded: 15 Said yes, they liked the idea 11 Said they hide usenet costs in big phone bills 9 Said they get usenet by local call, and so won't pay 5 Said "maybe" type things involving potential problems with legality etc. 2 Said to give them a call for jobs if the project got started! Well, this is both heartening and disenchanting at the same time. Back in the early days, almost everybody was in the class that couldn't pay directly for what they get because they could never ask management for it. It seems the net has grown so much that now people are more serious about ways to solve the cost and noise problems. Almost nobody seemed opposed to the idea of a private company providing net data communications, although a few felt centralization and profit were not necessary. On the sad part, if there were 15 customers and they were charged a fairly hefty $300 per month, that's only $4500 in gross revenues per month and much less profit. Not even enough to have one full time staff programmer. Of course, in the long run more people would sign up than 15, but $300 a month is probably to much for many (although backbones now pay >$1000 per month) Anyway, I'm still costing it out. Thought you would like to see the results. -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473