Text 20755, 47 rader
Skriven 2008-09-13 04:33:38 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
  Kommentar till text 20609 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: FidoNews 25:36 [02/04]: General Articles
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Replying to a message of Michiel van der Vlist to Bob Ackley:

 BA>> One problem I forsee over here is the fact that there are a LOT of
 BA>> people who do not live in or even near cities.  Me, for instance. 
 BA>> My house is about twelve miles (as the roads go, dunno how the wire
 BA>> goes, it's buried) from the telephone switch in Malvern, IA, that
 BA>> services me.  There are lots of folks who live farther away than I
 BA>> do.

 MvdV> Over here we too have people living outside the range of standard
 MvdV> DSL but not that many.

 BA>> The extension of copper telephone lines to those rural homes was,
 BA>> IIRC, government subsidized decades ago

 MvdV> Here those lines were laid when the one and only telco was state
 MvdV> owned. Their policy was that everyone, no matter where in the
 MvdV> country, could have a telephone at the same cost. So the rural
 MvdV> lines were subsidized. Mostly from the - then much overpriced -
 MvdV> fees for international calls.

 BA>> I don't think the government is going to do that again.

 MvdV> Not likely indeed. Even here.

 BA>> While satellite technology is available, it is very expensive - far
 BA>> too expensive for many of those people who live 'out in the sticks.'

 MvdV> It won't stop the phasing out of the classic POTS network. New
 MvdV> technologies will emerge to take care of rural areas. Satellite is
 MvdV> just one alternative. There is GSM, GPRS, Edge, UMTS, HSDPA and
 MvdV> Wimax as wireless alternatives. Plus that DSL technology is not at
 MvdV> its limits yet. One way to extend the range is to put part of the
 MvdV> equipment in a box along the road somewhere between the exchange
 MvdV> and a cluster of clients. In Germany they are already doing that to
 MvdV> provide DSL to rural areas. Think of it as a repeater. It isn't
 MvdV> actually, but it will serve to get the idea.

 MvdV> All or some of these solutions may result in people in "difficult"
 MvdV> places having to pay more for their connection though....

Or - more likely IMO - they'll drop telephone service completely.  Dunno if
you have telemarketers over there, but the fact that we have them here makes
the idea of not having a telephone quite attractive.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)