Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!apple!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!texbell!chinacat!telecom-gateway From: think!ames!limbic.UUCP!gil@eddie.mit.edu (Gil Kloepfer Jr.) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Do Modem Users Congest The Phone Network? Message-ID: Date: 30 Nov 89 08:00:41 GMT Sender: news@chinacat.Lonestar.ORG Reply-To: "Gil Kloepfer Jr." Organization: ICUS Software Systems, Islip, NY Lines: 32 Approved: telecom-request@chinacat.lonestar.org X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 538, message 5 of 7 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. I don't believe this is true anymore. Let's just take UUCP traffic as an example-- the modems being used are now becoming faster and cheaper (thanks Telebit, and others). Most of my modem traffic generally lasts less than a minute... I'm starting to see this as the rule rather than the exception lately. Exceptions to this rule are BBS users... Somehow, though, I can't see modem users connected to a BBS longer than 13-year-old Suzie is on the phone with her friend gossiping about person X, Y, and omega at school. :-) On a side note...has anyone in the NY Metro area seen the tariff proposal to the FCC about increasing the rate for residential phone service, and decreasing the discount after 11PM from 60% to 50%, and the discount after 9PM from 35% to 25%? Where would be the best place to write to protest this (PSC?)? If NYNEX saved all the money they spent in the useless tons of mass-mailings to attempt to persuade people to pay for wire maintenance, they wouldn't need a rate-increase or a discount-decrease! | Gil Kloepfer, Jr. | ICUS Software Systems | ...ames!limbic!gil