Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Fcc Regs/Data Comm.
Message-ID: <9463@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 2 Jan 90 23:59:25 GMT
References: <31A.news.misc@pro-generic> <70194@looking.on.ca>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 37

I agree with most of Templeton's points here, but I think there is one
of questionable validity.

In article <70194@looking.on.ca> brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) writes:
>	o) Modem calls involve continuous transmission of singal in both
>	  directions at all times.  Voice calls are almost always half
>	  duplex (except with rude people!) and also full of the gaps between
>	  words and other pauses.  (Being put on hold, for example.)
>
>	  While most modem use is also half-duplex, the phone company can't
>	  know that, sort of decoding your data, sending it on their own
>	  channels, and re-modulating it out on the other end.  So it
>	  uses at least 3 times the bandwidth of a voice call.

I believe most modem calls are within the same end office or within the
same toll office.  While long-distance calls may (depending on the
equipment available) allocate bandwidth to a call based on its actual
usage, direct electrical connections within the same end office or toll
office are allocated the entire bandwidth of the connecting wire,
regardless of how much they use.  Some areas may have upgraded their
local switching equipment so this is no longer true, but I doubt that
many have.

In any case, since the baby Bells are talking very seriously about
beginning home fiber optic wiring before the end of the decade, leading
to an explosion in phone-based services, I can't believe they would
support the imposition of a stiff surcharge that would sharply curtail
the growth of that industry right now.

Templeton is right; let's wait until this becomes a real target, rather
than a vague idea being kicked around, before we mobilize against it.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"Something was badly amiss with the spiritual life of the planet, thought
 Gibreel Farishta.  Too many demons inside people claiming to believe in
 God." -- Salman Rushdie, THE SATANIC VERSES