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Xref: sserve comp.unix.bsd:16260 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:8211 comp.unix.sys5.r4:9350 comp.unix.misc:16200 comp.os.linux.development:23665 comp.os.linux.misc:35803 comp.os.386bsd.development:3253 comp.os.386bsd.misc:5509 Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.sys5.r4,comp.unix.misc,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.development,comp.os.386bsd.misc Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!jamesl From: jamesl@netcom.com (James Logajan) Subject: Re: flat rates for Internet/phone (Re: X on dial-in) Message-ID: <jameslD4J4D3.5q7@netcom.com> Followup-To: comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.sys5.r4,comp.unix.misc,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.development,comp.os.386bsd.misc Organization: Lugoj Incorporated X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL1] References: <D3s19v.4M7@pe1chl.ampr.org> <D4DH09.BAo@pe1chl.ampr.org> <3ig1dn$6l5@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <1995Feb22.220136.7837@kf8nh.wariat.org> <3iik8n$q8@zeus.achilles.net> <jameslD4H36p.J7E@netcom.com> <3ilkcf$r4g@park.uvsc.edu> Date: Sat, 25 Feb 1995 00:07:51 GMT Lines: 53 Sender: jamesl@netcom9.netcom.com Terry Lambert (terry@cs.weber.edu) wrote: : jamesl@netcom.com (James Logajan) wrote: : ] : ] About the only way out : ] of the non-competitive fiasco now imposed on the telecommunications : ] customer is the recent advances in wireless telecommunications. : I absolutely *cringe* when I hear "recent advances in wireless : telecommunications". : I associate it with the 1/2 hour late night TV "infomercial" trying : to sell absolutely useless wireless cable franchises. They use : exactly this phrase, and follow it with "join the information : superhighway!". : This pretty much neglects the fact that *there*is*no*back*channel*! : Buy one of these, and you will have joined "the information super : one way street". : Now if, on the other hand, you were referring to mobile cellular : radio franchises... well, radio bandwith sucks, and you can tap : radio communications too easily, so that's only a log grade voice : soloution anyway. Sorry, I haven't watched any late-night TV in a long time. I'm sorry now that I went back over my message and replaced my original sentence with this phrase. To clarify: I did not intend to include so-called interactive TV or even mobile cellular radio franchises, though the later includes some of what I had in mind. 1) Low power UHF/VHF intelligent transceivers that act a lot like network routers and installed over the landscape is closer to what I had in mind. With intelligent/adaptive routing, low-power transceivers could handle a very large number of virtual channels for a large customer base without excessive bandwidth being used. Obviously, to hinder tapping radio transmissions will require encryption. Admittedly there is no way to build a perfect scheme that couldn't be tapped somehow. I do not remember where I first read about this, but it was quite some time ago. If anyone recoginizes the original attribution for my admittedly poor recollection of it, please let me know what it is. 2) Satellites acting as transceivers, similar to the scheme above. There were some changes/enhancements that made the scheme workable. The satellites weren't geostationary; that would be too far away. There would be enough in low-earth orbit (like GPS) to allow continuous global coverage. Again, I can't recall the orginal attribution for this idea [or all of the orginal idea ;-) ], so please don't hold me to any details. [Unless I dreamed up both in my sleep, in which case you can blame me :-)]