Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!apple!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!texbell!chinacat!telecom-gateway From: jim@eda.com (Jim Budler) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Do Modem Users Congest The Phone Network? Message-ID: Date: 30 Nov 89 09:07:24 GMT Sender: news@chinacat.Lonestar.ORG Organization: EDA Systems,Inc. Santa Clara, CA Lines: 53 Approved: telecom-request@chinacat.lonestar.org X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 538, message 4 of 7 jbw@bucsf.bu.edu (Joe Wells) writes: } 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. Both right. *Interactive* modem calls, as opposed to others like "ATM calls for data" modem calls or "grocery store sends day's data to central" can last hours. Teenagers talking on the phone can last hours. Either can cause the problem. Salesmen used to spend hours on a single call, FAX has reduced that. New technology, like the FAX, will eliminate some of the problem (ISDN?). The question is: Will new technology be in place, and in use, before the expansion of the current usage expansion (interactive modem sessions or teenagers) overburdens the current technology? People (companies?) such as Southwestern Bell (see alt.cousard) have attempted (stupidly?) to stem the tide by rate adjustments (prohibitive) and legislation. This is unrealistic. Modern usage of BBS, and I include Dow Jones News Service, Compuserve, Delphi (both the telecommunication and database services of the same name), GEnie, etc., are growing. Everyone who owns a PC (PC, Mac, Atari, etc) thinks about, or gets, a modem. Once they have them they will use them. The problem will exist. Legislation and rules cannot solve it, only technology. So again, the question is will the technology get there in time. We have time. Despite all the people reading this being modem users in one sense or another, the interactive usage is still under a 1 digit percentage TODAY. Jim Budler jim@eda.com ...!{decwrl,uunet}!eda!jim compuserve: 72415,1200 applelink: D4619 voice: +1 408 986-9585 fax: +1 408 748-1032