[Noise, California only] Good deal on ISDN access
[I have been sick at home all day, when I just couldn't sleep anymore I hit the web. I hope this makes sense...] Given that a good number of people on this list live in CA, this might be of interest to you. It certainly was to me. PacBell is selling flat rate 2B ISDN Internet access at $50/month. Plus the regular home ISDN fees, but this is still much cheaper than what I paid before. You might want to think hard before you buy at new 56k modem that in all likelihood won't be able to give you 56k anyway. And no analog modem will ever give you 128kbps. Analog lines aren't made for data. They aren't particularly good for data. That's why ISDN was designed. It didn't take off until recently, since it was priced for business and business decided they didn't need it for various reasons. But at these prices, you'd have to be a starving student or nuts not to get it at home. http://dialup.pacbell.net/ISDN/ Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in PacBell. It would be nice, though. :-) --Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred. Put a stake through the heart of DES! Join the quest at http://www.frii.com/~rcv/deschall.htm
At 05:55 AM 6/11/97 +0200, Anonymous wrote:
Lucky Green sez: [about ISDN] But don't they still charge you a penny a minute?
Not in the evening/night, which is when I tend to use my box at home.
When for $150 you can get a brand spanking new 56K modem, and pay $20-30 a month. Not as fast, but a much better price/performance ratio.
Assuming you can get 56k over your POTS line. Less than 20% of US households can even link up at 28.8k. ISDN is a clean solution that will work over just about any old wire. And now it has become rather inexpensive. I see little reason to stick with analog. YMMV. --Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred. Put a stake through the heart of DES! Join the quest at http://www.frii.com/~rcv/deschall.htm
Lucky Green sez:
Given that a good number of people on this list live in CA, this might be of interest to you. It certainly was to me. PacBell is selling flat rate 2B ISDN Internet access at $50/month. Plus the regular home ISDN fees, but this is still much cheaper than what I paid before. You might want to think hard before you buy at new 56k modem that in all likelihood won't be able to give you 56k anyway. And no analog modem will ever give you 128kbps.
But don't they still charge you a penny a minute? That adds up fast, and would probably cost you more than your $50 internet access fees. Plus the cost of ISDN service... All told, you're looking at $150 or so per month. When for $150 you can get a brand spanking new 56K modem, and pay $20-30 a month. Not as fast, but a much better price/performance ratio.
At 10:28 PM 6/10/97 -0700, Lucky wrote:
Assuming you can get 56k over your POTS line. Less than 20% of US households can even link up at 28.8k.
ISDN is a clean solution that will work over just about any old wire. Actually, it's a lot pickier; the line needs to be able to carry 192kbps of digital signal to haul the 2*64+16+overhead kbps of bits. And if you're too far away, you lose, unless the phone company
Connecting at 28.8 is a totally different game - it's using pure analog modems taking advantage of the relatively low noise of most phone lines, which tend to be either short distances or carried over T1 local loops. It's close to the theoretical limit of what you can get, assuming Gaussian noise distributions, and of course 33.6 is a lot closer :-) The 56kbps cheats, taking advantage of the fact that the noise on a digital line isn't Gaussian, and is mostly predictable. It only works from the digital end (an ISP's T1) to the analog end, and not the other way around, but for most people, that's fine - anybody who's moving a lot more than 28.8kbps outbound probably wants more than 56kbps anyway, and meanwhile it's a potentially big win for the average data consumer. throws in a lot of expensive repeater equipment. On analog, if you're too far away, your signal just degrades and you get lower bit rates. But ISDN does work for a lot of people.
And now it has become rather inexpensive. Cost and price are totally different questions; your phone company may vary along with your mileage. Some places think it's a high-value business service and charge big bucks for it; other phone companies think you're getting 2.25 phone lines and charge you for 2. Some, like PacBell, charged a reasonable monthly rate, assumed most of the use was business and wanted to stimulate market growth, so they made it free at night, not realizing what "free at night" means to computer users :-) We'll see how long their cheap tariff lasts.
I see little reason to stick with analog. YMMV.
# Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com # You can get PGP outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/pgp # (If this is a mailing list or news, please Cc: me on replies. Thanks.)
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