Xref: utzoo alt.sources:738 news.admin:6043 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!bionet!ames!ncar!tank!shamash!com50!mscunx!hawkmoon!det From: det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) Newsgroups: alt.sources,news.admin Subject: Re: An apology, and a question (about uucp in Germany) Summary: local costs weren't (aren't?) free in europa Message-ID: <987@hawkmoon.MN.ORG> Date: 21 Jun 89 03:27:41 GMT References: <786@redsox.bsw.com> Organization: One of the Eternal Champions - Richfield, MN, 554232523, USA Lines: 54 In article <786@redsox.bsw.com>, campbell@redsox.bsw.com (Larry Campbell) writes: > Now, my question (and I'd prefer to get answers only from people in Germany, > who know, rather than people in the US, who are guessing). What is going on > in Germany that makes getting a news feed so unbelievably expensive? [..] Hopefully, one who used to live in europa will help, rather than one who is currently living in europa.... > > [..] > > For every KB mail I received it's charged for $0.70. > > I really don't understand this. Who do you have to pay the $200 to? Quite possibly the phone company (usually state run and called PTT (post, telephone, telegraph)). > In the US, you just find a local Usenet site with a friendly system > administrator and set up a uucp link. If it's a local call, it's free. > What prevents you from doing that in Germany? Even if local calls > aren't free, $200/month seems hard to believe (I suspect that, with > decent modems, I could get a full feed from California for less than > that, at night time rates). When i lived in Nederland (holland) local calls were charged at 10c (dutch cents) per call. I could easily imagine a metered call. In fact, it might have been 10c/call + X cents per minute.... Can't quite remember. In any event, its not too hard to rack up lots of bucks at 70c/minute. This article that i am posting is approximately 2K just by itself. So, assuming $200/ month is the goal (not desired, of course (:-() and 30 days per month and (just) 1K per article: $200.00 $6.67 $6.67 1 article 9.53 articles ------- = ----- and, ----- x --------- = ------------- 30 days 1 day 1 day $0.70 day How many articles do YOU get a day? More than 10 articles? That would only be 5 of these (relatively) small articles, like the one i'm posting right now. Suprising how fast a seemingly little charge can add up, huh? I have also heard that it is relatively difficult to get 2400 baud modems in germany, and quite difficult to get >2400 baud modems. We (in the usa) are pretty lucky... You should try the telephone service in Egypt (from what i've heard)... Hope you-all have enjoyed these simplistic calculations... derek -- Derek Terveer det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG || ..!uunet!rosevax!elric!hawkmoon!det w(612)681-6986 h(612)688-0667 "A proper king is crowned" -- Thomas B. Costain