DLV%CUNYVMS1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (02/03/90)
The following appeared in a recent issue of InfoWorld and I figured it might be
useful to some, so I keyed it in and posted it to this list.
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High-Speed Alternet to Rival X.25 Networks
By Martin Marshall
Uunet Communications Services Inc.\ announced last week that it will establish
a high-speed network this week, similar to the Defense Department's Arpanet and
the National Science Foundation's NSF-Net, but one that will be open to
commercial users.
Arpanet and NSF-Net form part of Internet, which is largely funded by the
federal government. Because of its funding, Internet use is restricted to
organizations doing government sponsored or approved research and development.
The new network, called Alternet, will receive no government funding, so it can
allow commercial use.
Alternet will provide TCP/IP connectivity commercially on an international
scale. European access will be provided through a cooperative agreement with
Eunet, the European networking organization.
Alternet will present both cost and performance advantages compared with the
X.25 Public Data Network, according to Uunet. Alternet will provide
56-kilobit-per-second (kbps) connections, while X.25 provides 9.6-kbps links.
Alternet does not place additional charges for each kilosegment sent, as X.25
does, but rather quotes all-inclusive prices.
``A typical customer could connect an engineering facility in California with a
sales office in Paris with a dedicated line at 56 kilobits per second for under
$2,5000 a months,'' said Rick Adams, technical director of Uunet. ``By
comparison, an X.25 connection would cost $4,000 per month; it would yield only
9.6 kilobits per second; and there would be an additional charge for each
kilosegment.''
Alternet 56-kbps service is priced at $1,000 per month plus the telephone
company's charge for connection to Alternet's local hub, Adams said.
A 9.6-kilobit connection to Alternet is offered as inexpensively as $250 per
month, he added.
Alternet is available to all interested organizations, including commercial,
educational, and nonprofit. For those organizations with proper government
authorizations, Internet access is provided at no extra charge, the company
said.
Uunet communications Services Inc., 3110 Fairview Park Drive, Suite 570, Falls
Church, VA 22042; (703) 876-5050.
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Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with either.
Remark 1: UUNET, you will recall, already services the .NI domain.
Remark 2: Weren't we going to replace TCP/IP by ISO/OSI? :)
Dimitri Vulis
Department of Mathematics
City University of New York Graduate Center
Proud owner of RUSTEX-L, the Russian TeX and Soviet E-mail mailing list