🚀 go-pugleaf

newhere-in-time (enid@heavan.org) wrote:
: Let's face it...ISDN is dead as it is.  With a max 128kbps throughput it's 
: just a bandaid until we get to the cable modem (600kbps, 4mps, 10mps).
   
   Yeah, but most of us have about as much faith in cable modems coming 
along soon and providing a really god measure of EFFECTIVE bandwidth as 
we do about having affordable ISDN. ;)

   The fact of the matter is that ISDN is a very plausible technology.  
It's possible for US West to impliment it at reasonable cost, make a 
decent profit off of those of us who are willing to pay for it, and not 
absolutely gouge the consumers.

: Let-em have it.  They don't even have a clue what it is to begin with.  Even 
: if ISDN was affordable if you talk to any US West insider they'll tell you 
: that over half of the CO's are not capable of supporting it.  By the time all 
: the CO's are upgraded the cable modem will be the new thing and will totaly 
: bypass ISDN.

   If we were in nevada, I'd ask you to wager on that one. :)  I'd rather 
bet on a technology I know can be implimented _right now_ than one 
that's still in pre-beta testing.  If/when cable modems come along -- and 
I'm not disputing that using coax has much more promise than our happy 
twisted pair bandlimited phone lines -- we'll jump to them too.

: I don't know of very many providers that are willing to put up the cost to 
: even support it to begin with.  The equipment is still unreasonably expensive 
: where a 10mps cable modem will come out on the market for about $200 even and 
: it will do your voice, data, vidtel, cable, etc.

   We'd love to support it.  As a matter of the initial equipment outlay, 
all of our terminal servers are ISDN-ready.  Now.  Not tomorrow.  Today.  
I need to buy the interface board for them, and that's it.  You might ask 
why I haven't already done so?  Because at our ratio of 10 users per 
modem, if I have to *pay* US West $180 per month per ISDN line.. well, 
you can figure it out.  That's $18 off the top for providing ISDN 
service.

   Most providers in Utah charge between $15 and $25 per month for 
individual access.  When your phone line charges are between $15 and $18 
per user, we'd need to charge exorbitant fees to provide ISDN services.  
Add that on top of the $180 our customers would pay for the line in their 
home, and it's ridiculous -- who wants to pay $220+ just to have ISDN 
when you could get a frame-relay 56k connection for a bit more and have 
full time access?

: just 2 cents worth.

   My $184/month worth. :)

     -Dave Andersen

--
angio@aros.net                Complete virtual hosting and business-oriented
system administration         Internet services.  (WWW, FTP, email)
http://www.aros.net/          http://www.aros.net/about/virtual/
(PGP Available)   "She totally confused all the passing piranhas"