Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!oddjob!mimsy!dftsrv!ames!killer!pollux!dalsqnt!usl!usl-pc!jpdres10
From: jpdres10@usl-pc.usl.edu (Green Eric Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Bandwagon not Bandwidth
Keywords: modem prices limit high speeds
Message-ID: <61@usl-pc.usl.edu>
Date: 14 Oct 88 17:40:17 GMT
References: <752@imtec.co.uk>
Reply-To: elg@killer.UUCP (Green Eric Lee)
Organization: Univ. of Southwestern La., Lafayette
Lines: 33

In article <752@imtec.co.uk> russell@imtec.co.uk (Russell Brown) writes:
>There have been a number of articles talking about the (lack) of high
>speed modems in the U.K.  Although there are now a few sites using

>Until (very) recently, the standard V.22bis modem in the U.K. was the
>Dowty Quattro - this retails at #795 (:bc -l..... $1300 ish).  Exotic
>devices like trailblazers (also sold by Dowty) retail at around the
>#1395 mark ($2300).
>
>Reading between the lines these seem to compare with $400 for a
>V22bis and $1500 for a trailblazer in the US of A.

Trailblazers sell for $1300 in the USA, and I have seen V22bis (2400
baud, right?) for $95, via mail-order ($150 from retail outlets).

It seems that everything sold by American companies in the UK is very
expensive. For example, back in the olden days, Commodore sold their
C-64 home computer for the equivalent of $300 in the UK -- at the same
time that they were selling it here for $150. Part of it is the
distributor/dealer network in the UK, which is almost as bad as that
in France or Japan (middlemen, middlemen, here there everywhere).
Other culprits may be: the balance of payment problems that the UK has
had for lo so many years, and import tariffs (sort of a response to
those problems). And, finally -- they just don't sell much product in
the UK. The UK isn't a Third-World nation yet, but it's not exactly
wealthy, either. There are no economies of scale to bring down the
price of shipping across the sea and certifying with local
authorities. 

The USENET needs an economics newsgroup, for discussing issues like
this, but, alas, it doesn't seem it'll happen.

 Eric Green   {well-connected-site}!killer!elg