Re: Note from a satisfied customer

[frezza@interramp.com (Bill Frezza)]

  On Fri, 15 Mar 1996, Jamie Love wrote:
  
  >We think that with broad deployment of a reasonably
  >priced service, used full bore (both B channels), you might see a new
  >generation of information products offered.
  
  Interesting thing I've learned about that second B channel, at least in the
  real world of Web surfing. Moving from 28.8 kbps to 64 kbps provides an
  astounding improvement in throughput, but adding that second B channel does
  just about nothing. Yup. It seems that most web servers top out at around
  56 kbps anwyay, so all adding the B channel does is move the bottleneck to
  the other end. When you do your calculations of the "outrageous" charges,
  best stick to a single B channel as the second one will almost never get
  used. I had to actually create a contrived situation (four simultaneous
  file downloads) to get the throughput up to 90 kbps.
  
  >    So what is the right number of ISDN usage hours for a public policy
  >analysis?  I think that 29 hours per month, Frizza's number, is too low.
  
  29 hours per month of Web Surfing is too low?  Jeez, get a life <g>.
  
  >     What would 100 hours of 2B+D cost under the BA tariff?  That is, what
  >if the line was used for the things that the technology is supposed to
  >deliver?
  
  Supposed by whom?  THIS AIN"T A LEASED LINE, IT'S A SWITCHED CIRCUIT. When
  you use it between offices, it ties up trunks. Why is this so hard to
  understand?  What social catastrophe will occur if the dopes at the phone
  company set their prices "too high" for esoteric services like this? All
  this will do is attract competition sooner, which is going to come from
  wireless ISDN long before it comes from the cable companies.  (Keep your
  eye on PCS, there is no way all those companies are going to be able to
  chase the mobile user.)
  
  And why should ISDN users be subsidized by plain old telephone users? What
  about poor old grandma, do you want her phone bill to go up just so some
  geek can sit in front of his PC for 100 hours every month downloading dirty
  GIFs?
  
  I've got to hand it to you, Jamie, you do wonderful political theater.
  
  Cheers,
  
  Bill