root@vortex.UUCP (05/18/84)
I hope to help avoid this problem through my satellite distribution plan for netnews. It would require participating sites to buy a decoder if they had access to their local cable system, or a cheap (~1K) earth station + decoder if they weren't. In any case, it would be essentially a one time cost. After that, netnews would be distributed largely through this broadcast channel, at much higher speeds and with all sorts of nifty new features. I'll be giving a paper on this project at the Utah Usenix. The project is being supported with help from Usenix. --Lauren--