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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!amdcad!phil
From: phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: satellite netnews support
Message-ID: <409@amdcad.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Dec-84 00:25:46 EST
Article-I.D.: amdcad.409
Posted: Mon Dec 17 00:25:46 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 17-Dec-84 05:34:12 EST
References: <466@vortex.UUCP> <1871@sun.uucp> <1295@eosp1.UUCP> <491@ut-sally.UUCP>
Organization: AMDCAD, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 32

> > Lauren, I wish you well, but I doubt that many people
> > will pay the $500.
> 
> There are many areas which are otherwise far away from most of USENET,
> so that long-distance telephone bills are high:  a full feed for the
> current bulk of USENET can cost thousands of dollars a year.
> A one-time fee of $500 for equipment plus a (one would hope) nominal
> cable charge should be quite attractive in such circumstances.
> 
> Even where telephone bills are not so high, is $500 really outrageous
> for a direct feed from a backbone site?

I have no problem with $500 for a decoder. I pay that much for two
MOD-TAP 24 line patch panels. It's cheaper than a modem.

What concerns me is the subscription charge required to be able to
send a message to stargate for transmission. Maybe I'm confused, but
I thought people would have to pay for the ability to send a msg
to stargate so it can be broadcast? How much will this cost? At
AMD, buying capital equipment is easy (thank Congress for the
preferential capital gains tax treatment) but expenses are always
very tightly watched.

And do I understand that netnews will be effectively flowing into my
machine at 1200 baud or more 24 hours a day? This seems a bit inefficient.
Is the "decoder" going to perform article rejection for me too?
-- 
 This may not even represent my opinion, much less AMD's.

 Phil Ngai (408) 749-5790
 UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra}!amdcad!phil
 ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.ARPA