🚀 go-pugleaf

 * Crossposted in area APANA_GENERAL
 * Crossposted in area AUS_ORG_EFA

 wi> From: wisby@ibm.net

 wi> David,

 wi> >Actually, the area of greatest concern to the phone network provider
 wi> >is the utilisation of junction cables between exchanges and the
 wi> >inter-switch links in exchanges.  Even the modern digital exchanges
 wi> >are not able to be totally non-blocking, hence there is a finite
 wi> >number of calls that can concurrently exist between switching stages.

David: but of course the time of day calls are mostly made has to be factored
in.  Most BBS use (here at least, and others report similar behaviour) is at
off-peak times - and most mailer activity occurs in the dead of night.

 wi> >Given that the average business call lasts about 3 minutes; If you

Mostly from 9 to 5, though; one assumes that the great bulk of the private,
non-commercial internet usage would also occur out of business hours?

 wi> >and cable.  This is where the real push for timed local calls stems
 wi> >from.

Telstra (and Optus, and presumably post-'97 competitors) are already bound not
to introduce (non-optional) timed local calls until at least '99, anyway.

 wi> >With the current proliferation of people connecting to the net via
 wi> >either ISP's or BBS's... this problem is going to escalate.

Well, obviously there will be greater line utilisation as more and more people
use networks - goes without saying, and a matter of forward planning, surely.

 wi> But, as Telstra has now gone big-league into the 'Net services, it is now
 wi> creating more problems. Why take it out on BBS's, which,
 wi> after all, do generate quite a bit of revenue.

 wi> Do you see this as an attempt to get BBS's to underwrite
 wi> the costs of upgrading
 wi> the link to the US? Or upgrading the links for MSN ? Or what?

Hardly in that category, Marjorie.  More of a monumental stuff-up, true to form
old-fashioned bungling fueled by totally inadequate Telstra information on the
circumstances of the majority of BBSs (and small non-commercial ISPs).   The
cynical may see this as having been an exercise in flushing BBSs out to gather
such information, while the paranoid 'expose' all manner of plots ..

[..]

 wi> How will it help the congestion to close the BBS's, and
 wi> restrict use of the others?

Of course this is now an ex-issue; the battle for non-profit BBSs has been won,
as announced over a week ago in Fidonet, and here too.  Still, defining just
what constitutes not-for-profit provision may have mileage in it yet ..

 wi> [..] With ppl like me around, they could
 wi> close all the BBS's in Oz, and still have much the same, or
 wi> a worse, situation.

The only suggestion of BBSs closing was from a few who reacted by saying that
the extra ~$2/wk would force their closure, but in fact that's a small part of
the operating costs of any BBS - especially to a rural one, used to paying STD
bills of $250-450 per _quarter_ for very modest mail and conference feeds.

Any BBS that was going to be tipped over the edge for the sake of $2/wk was
probably on the point of chucking it in anyway; this seems to have been born
out by several who announced closure, without a fight, as the 'last straw'.

 wi> Now David, we are in a fight with Telstra over this - how
 wi> about expressing an
 wi> opinion on the situation? Do you think that BBS's should be
 wi> charged extra?
 wi> Even if it means many will have to close?

It's over.  Read the posts on the tariff redefinition.  We won, and pretty
quickly at that - bring the troops back home, and give 'em a good feed ..

 wi> Would you prefer to see minors using BBS's, where the
 wi> parents can easily find
 wi> out for themselves what their children are exposed to, or would you put
 wi> them on the 'Net and then scream about censorship?

I'm not sure what you're getting at here?  Parents have no more (or less) idea
about what their kids are doing on BBSs or on the net, as far as I can tell. 
Are those parents who can afford to let their kids roam the net for $4-5/hr
more - or less - likely to monitor what they're into, than those of kids who
spend maybe 75c a day on three half-hour BBS calls?

Ian
--
|Fidonet:  Ian Smith 3:711/431
|Internet: smithi@teleport.apana.org.au
|
| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own.