🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4851@mimsy.UUCP>, chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes:
> When you make a local call that does not require routing between
> different COs, this ties up only the two twisted pairs and whatever
> it takes to cross-connect them.  It is only when you use a long-
> distance trunk that you begin using a shared resource.  (I am not
> at all certain that the connection at the CO is `free', though.)
> -- 
> In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690)
> UUCP:	seismo!mimsy!chris	ARPA/CSNet:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu

Well, you are correct that all it takes are the twisted pairs and the
cross-connect stuff, but the cross-connect stuff *IS* a shared resource
also. Each CO has a finite number of switches and that number is very much
smaller than the (number of lines / 2) figure that would be required if
everyone called someone else at the same time.  The number of switches in
an office is based on the average frequency and duration of calls through
that office:  modem calls are longer (on the average) than voice calls
(no matter how many teenage girls there are out there).  They consume
more resources (switches), causing the phone company to either install
more switches or tolerate a lower successful connection rate.  Since
reliability, or rather perceived reliability, is important, they usually
will install more switches, causing a capital outlay to be passed on to
consumers.  These economics have been true since the beginning of the
Bell System up through and including the ESS 5 switch (I don't know if
there have been any since then).

So, regretfully, data calls do cost the phone company more, and equal rates
for voice and data cause voice-only users to "subsidize" data users if
someone wishes to perceive things that way.  Too bad.  Not that I relish
paying extra (and I won't if I don't have to), but that's the way it looks
from where I sit.





-- 
Steve Barber    Rabbit Software Corp.
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