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From: mjs@cbnews.att.com (martin.j.shannon)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: UUPSI's new rules
Message-ID: <1991Mar14.210331.25245@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 14 Mar 91 21:03:31 GMT
References: <2517@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> <1991Mar14.052623.26604@jpradley.jpr.com> <1991Mar14.170247.10965@uu.psi.com>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 62

In article <1991Mar14.170247.10965@uu.psi.com> schoff@uu.psi.com (Martin Schoffstall) writes:
@ Let me try again.  Backbone t1 bandwidth is available, especially
@ in the evening, that is why we give our SCS+CCS customers NNTP
@ news feeds for free.  What is in short supply (has incremental
@ cost) are $600 modems and $25/mo POTS lines to feed news through
@ the normal phoneline/UUCP means.

This certainly sounds reasonable to me.  But, see below.

@ A couple of things here..  PSI goal is not to play to the current
@ USENET "community" but to bring in a new group of participants who
@ are interested in the service provision of a reliable accountable
@ local leaf connection.  (But if you want 3rd party you can have that
@ at a higher price).

Hmmm.  Sounds like a little bit of "foot shooting" to me, but perhaps
"they" know what they're doing.  I'm not sure I have any idea who might
fall into that "new group"....  But, I'd love to hear about this new
group: give some examples of who these new folks might be.

@ UUPSI provides email gateway service to our contracted customers anywhere
@ they want to go on the Internet, Bitnet, etc.  What a third party restiction
@ represents is someone from "behind" our customer using our bandwith to
@ get to those same places.  To those organization we say get your own
@ contract/connection to UUPSI.

And here's the rub!  It *seems* that if more folks do get thir own
connections to UUPSI, then UUPSI is artificially increasing the load on
the already expensive modems and POTS service.  I have a feed that has
his modems at 90+% usage (off-peak, the only time I can afford to call
his machine).  Is UUPSI going to certify a certain utilization maximum
(above which they will automatically add modems)?

@ While I know that these positions are controversial, this was known
@ in advance, it did not take me by surprise that there would be
@ a response, unfortunately it was a particurally uniformed response due to the
@ inaccuracy of the initial postings.
@ 
@ PSI is simply using a different model of how to provide service, this
@ includes the balancing of fees, contracts, technology, customer
@ service, and access, it is not particurally evil, it is different.
@ 
@ Marty

Marty, the only controversy *I* see is the denial of service to your
contracted customers.  You've denied them the ability to forward *any*
mail they receive from anywhere outside UUPSI.  Do they deny UUPSI the
ability to forward any mail *through* UUPSI's contracted customers?
(They should!)  Does UUPSI *guarantee* that they will never attempt to
send mail/news *through* a customer's machine -- even if it is the
cheapest route?

Disclaimer: I do not currently use UUPSI.  My interest is to be able to
afford a reasonable *personal* Internet connection -- some day (note: I
carry as full a news feed as I can get on my *personal* machine at
home -- out of my own pocket).  I don't see UUPSI being a provider of
that sort of service with the current offerings that I've been made
aware of in this thread.
-- 
Marty Shannon; AT&T Bell Labs; Liberty Corner, NJ, USA
(Affiliation is given for identification only:
I don't speak for them; they don't speak for me.)