Re: "Telco Terrorism" -- Wired on Baby Bells v. the Net

[nospam-seesignature@ceddec.com]

My ISP has already tried 128K wireless spread spectrum radio modems, and
they work fairly well.

If the Telcos move to raise rates, the internet will cease using the Telco
system.  And then some telephone interface company will create an internet
to POTS (Paleo Obsolete Telephone Service) interface.

The problem as it was explained to me is the aggregation factor (I don't
remember all the details so the following information is from my bad
memory).  Back when, someone decided that 8 lines could be grouped, and 8
groups would form a trunk (or at some level), so any of 64 stations could
make 8 (or 16) phone calls simultaneously into the central office.  Really
bad things happen when the 8 people are on for several hours and a 9th
attempts to use it.  To the point where you can't get a dialtone.  And
redial.  Which uses more CO resources.  Which causes more people not to
get a quick dialtone.  Which causes them to redial too...  And then it
melts down.  (The time it takes to get dialtone is apparently a measure of
load on the system).

Telcos are like modern Banks - they are based on fractional reserve
bandwidth.  When everyone tries to use their share at the same time, you
have the equivalent of a run on a bank.

Didn't Adam Back suggest bandwidth based financial derivatives...

--- reply to tzeruch - at - ceddec - dot - com ---