Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!texbell!chinacat!telecom-gateway From: jbw@bucsf.bu.edu (Joe Wells) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Do Modem Users Congest The Phone Network? Message-ID: Date: 29 Nov 89 01:52:24 GMT Sender: news@chinacat.Lonestar.ORG Organization: Boston University Computer Science Department Lines: 20 Approved: telecom-request@chinacat.lonestar.org X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 534, message 8 of 10 [Moderator's Note: The original message, noted by reference here, was in the comp.unix news group. It was transferred here to promote discussion of the topic by TELECOM Digest readers. PT] In article <246@cfa.HARVARD.EDU> wyatt@cfa.HARVARD.EDU (Bill Wyatt) writes: I don't want extra charges either, but in addition to the above consideration, modem calls are not the same simply because they usually last much longer than a voice call. Somewhere I read an estimate that if only 20% of household had modems in regular use, the phone system would be hoplessly bogged down. If 20% of households were simultaneously engaged in any kind of calls, large sections of the phone system would be hopelessly bogged down. If they were all long distance calls, it would be even worse. Modem use isn't necessary for the calls to hurt phone system performance. Joe Wells jbw%bucsf.bu.edu@bu-it.bu.edu ...!harvard!bu-cs!bucsf!jbw