Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.ucsf.edu!root From: root@cca.ucsf.edu (Systems Staff) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: FEED FOR GERMANY WAS:Re: An apology, and a question (uucp in Germany) Summary: Then there are the alternatives ... : International sneakernet anyone? Message-ID: <2136@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu> Date: 23 Jun 89 02:31:49 GMT References: <786@redsox.bsw.com> <114@utower.UUCP> <3631@ddsw1.MCS.COM> Organization: Computer Center, UCSF Lines: 37 In article <3631@ddsw1.MCS.COM>, karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger) writes: > In article <114@utower.UUCP> fischer@utower.UUCP (Axel Fischer) writes: > >In article <786@redsox.bsw.com> campbell@redsox.bsw.com (Larry Campbell) writes: > > >>can NOT believe that it costs $47,000 per month just to get Usenet > >>traffic across the ocean!! > The posting from the EUUG board member states that the full news feed is only shared by 35 sites and that a full feed is $150 so we are looking at an order of magnitude less cash here if he is correctly informed. Transmission via high speed modem (e.g. Telebit which I gather from other postings is the fastest legal modem) would take on the order of an hour per night which at $1.50/minute (his figure) would be around $2700 per month out of the $5250 from the above full subscription figure. There are obviously other costs, so this looks like a reasonable amount. Sounds to me like they are engaging in a classic case of pricing themselves out of the market. I find it hard to believe that they couldn't find ten times as many clients at $30/month for a doubling of their revenue. Remember, they don't direct feed everyone; you pay them even if you get the news by relay. Thos Sumner Internet: thos@cca.ucsf.edu (The I.G.) UUCP: ...ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.ucsf!thos BITNET: thos@ucsfcca U.S. Mail: Thos Sumner, Computer Center, Rm U-76, UCSF San Francisco, CA 94143-0704 USA OS|2 -- an Operating System for puppets. #include