re: satisfied customer

[Dan Kegel <dank@alumni.caltech.edu>]

  At 09:52 AM 3/21/96 -0500, W. Curtiss Priest wrote:
  >Ah!  Then my next question is this.  Wouldn't it make sense for telcos
  >to build systems that detect modem carriers and that do discriminate --
  >and only haul the actual data?  Certainly this is not difficult to
  >do technologically.
  
  Yes.  In fact, I think this sort of thing has been done.  In the networking
  world, this is called spoofing.  It is commonly used in bridges
  to avoid sending broadcast packets that can easily be generated
  by the other end of the bridge.  Terminal servers have also
  sometimes been written to notice that a file-transfer protocol (e.g. XMODEM) is
  in use, and handle protocol handshake locally.
  
  Even the telcos sometimes recognize fax tones and behave differently
  for fax calls sometimes, I seem to recall.  (Might be wrong about this.)
  
  I think it would make great sense.  But the telco equipment would
  probably require upgrading to more than just the line cards,
  so it might be quite expensive.  I proposed a few months ago that
  telcos not charge for ISDN calls - even local ones - that were on
  hold.  You can't ask for a clearer hint than that to know you don't
  need to send data - but the telcos all acted like I was an idiot.  
  "It still ties up bandwidth!" they cried.  Go figure.
  So if they can't take advantage of a chance like that, there's
  no way they'll do something fancy like spoofing.
  
  Unless, that is, it saves them money.  That is, don't count on
  them passing the savings on to you even if they implement such a
  scheme.
  - Dan
  
  http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~dank/isdn
  http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~dank/isdn/asdl.html