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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!hocda!houxm!ihnp4!dual!fair
From: fair@dual.UUCP (Erik E. Fair)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: ExpressMail
Message-ID: <511@dual.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-May-84 21:24:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: dual.511
Posted: Wed May 16 21:24:58 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 17-May-84 04:48:14 EDT
References: <1606@sunybcs.UUCP>
Organization: Dual Systems, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 39

I think that this will overload both the capacity for computing cycles
and for good will at the sites identified as being `ExPressable'. I
find UUCP mail service provide by the network to be excellent. Where
else can I get a letter to Europe in a single day? When I write Snail
mail to my relatives in Norway, it takes upwards of 10 days to get
there...

The network will get faster with time & technology. 2400 baud modems
for example, have started appearing at reasonable prices, and I expect
that a number of 2400 baud backbone links will start appearing in the
next few months.

In addition, the phone service market is heating up. A new service just
announced itself on Monday in the Wall Street Journal (yes, I read
it daily. It has good stuff in it often enough. No I don't wear a
pinstripe suit!). It's called ARGO, and it appears to be a consortium
of companies with a dedicated satellite network.  They have announced a
flat rate of $0.26 per minute to all cities in their network. The
rational is that costs the same to bounce it off a satellite no matter
where you're going in the US, so why charge more for distance?  I have
no more details than that, because I have not been able to get through
to their sales department for further info. The number, should any of
the rest of you be interested in investigating it, is 1-800-431-2746

The point is that technology is making communications better and faster
all the time, and all we have to do is wait for it to become
`affordable'.  Where ever that threshold is for the network at large, I
don't know, but there was a time when 1200 baud modems were $1500 and
this network did not exist...

	Erik E. Fair	ucbvax!fair	fair@ucb-arpa.ARPA

	dual!fair@Berkeley.ARPA
	{ihnp4,ucbvax,cbosgd,decwrl,amd70,fortune,zehntel}!dual!fair
	Dual Systems Corporation, Berkeley, California

P.S.	I have no connection with ARGO in any way shape or form.
	I'm just a curious as you are to see them deliver on their
	claims...