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Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!dave
From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman)
Newsgroups: net.dcom
Subject: Re: Cost of X.25 networks vs. cost of 1200 bps
Message-ID: <3607@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Mar-84 09:38:21 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.3607
Posted: Mon Mar 26 09:38:21 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 26-Mar-84 11:06:38 EST
References: <6482@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: The Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 39

~|   From: covert@castor.DEC (John Covert)
~|   At 1200 bps, I can transmit (with an error correcting protocol)
~|   approximately 5120 characters per minute, or per 47 cents (the
~|   maximum cost of an interstate telephone call within the continental
~|   U.S.).
~|    
~|   This is 9.18 cents per kilocharacter.  Unless I'm mistaken, most
~|   X.25 services charge much more than 9.18 cents per kilocharacter.
~|    

Datapac (the Canadian network) costs anywhere from 21 cents to $2-3 per
kilopacket, depending on the two locations. A typical connection might be
50 cents. That's for a potential of 256,000 characters, or 0.19 cents
per kilocharacter, MUCH less than your 9.18 cents.

Additional Datapac charges depend on the type of connection you have. If
you dialup to the PDN, you pay an additional 4.5 cents/minute plus 35 cents
per kilopacket.

If you have a hardwired link to Datapac and your own PAD or X.25 support,
the connection costs a flat $120 (1200 baud) to $380 (9600 baud) per month.
And I have used Datapac (for law case searches) at 9600 baud; you do indeed
get throughput pretty close to that.

Of course, with current uucp handshaking you don't get anywhere near 256
characters per packet; but this could presumably be optimized (e.g., send
256 chars, get them *all* back to check, would cost the same as sending a
few chars and getting a checksum back).

I believe Telenet charges in the U.S. are roughly comparable to Datapac.
All prices above are in Canadian dollars ($1 = ~78 cents U.S.).



Dave Sherman
The Law Society of Upper Canada
Toronto
-- 
 {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!dave