From owner-freebsd-hardware Sun Jul 7 16:17:37 1996 Return-Path: owner-hardware Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id QAA21055 for hardware-outgoing; Sun, 7 Jul 1996 16:17:37 -0700 (PDT) Received: from persprog.com (persprog.com [204.215.255.203]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id QAA21048 for ; Sun, 7 Jul 1996 16:17:33 -0700 (PDT) Received: by persprog.com (8.7.5/4.10) id RAA21501; Sun, 7 Jul 1996 17:51:51 -0500 Received: from novell(192.2.2.201) by cerberus.ppi.com via smap (V1.3) id sma021499; Sun Jul 7 18:51:29 1996 Received: from NOVELL/SpoolDir by novell.persprog.com (Mercury 1.12); Sun, 7 Jul 96 18:48:01 +0500 Received: from SpoolDir by NOVELL (Mercury 1.12); Sun, 7 Jul 96 18:47:40 +0500 From: "David Alderman" Organization: Personalized Programming, Inc. To: "Jacob M. Parnas" , hardware@freebsd.org, bsdi-users@bsdi.com Date: Sun, 7 Jul 1996 18:47:37 EST Subject: Re: Priority: normal X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.31) Message-ID: <3440F75C13@novell.persprog.com> Sender: owner-hardware@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > From: "Jacob M. Parnas" > > But I think if you research carefully its receive only. Send must be done > through some other channel like a V.34+ modem. > My brother in Jacksonville, Florida is being offered bidirectional access through Continental Cablevision for $40 / month. Continental has converted large portions of Jacksonville to fiber and they have bidirectional capability. No phone lines are required - I repeat no phone lines are required. I have heard of what you are talking about, Mr. Parnas, and this is indeed how some cable providers are planning to set things up but others are planning what appears to be reasonable, competitive solutions. Continental Cablevision did their original trials at Boston College and I think they may know what they are doing (although I am certainly not known for my love of cable companies). The big problem I see with ISDN, cable modems, etc. is that the service is only available in some areas and the pricing strategies are so varied. I live in Alachua, Florida. My cable provider is Cable Florida and my local phone system is Alltel. While Alltel may provide internet services in Georgia they have failed to deliver ISDN in three years of promises in this area (unless my information is out of date - if so my sincere apologies to Alltel and please send your rates immediately!). Less than ten miles away Gainesville has BellSouth and full ISDN services available although I don't know if there are any ISP's providing ISDN at a reasonable rate. I work for a software company but my only access to the internet is through POTS because our local phone company has the attitude that if enough people ask them for ISDN, maybe they will provide it. If they had used the same approach for basic phone service I bet half of the United States would have no phones. ====================================== When philosophy conflicts with reality, choose reality. Dave Alderman -- dave@persprog.com ======================================