An apology, and a question (about uucp in Germany)

[Lancelot of Caid]

In article <1550 at stl.stc.co.uk>, dww at stl.stc.co.uk (David Wright) writes:
< Some posters have suggested that European sites should 'get a
< Trailblazer and import news directly'.    Well, TB's would help, so
< lots of us are getting them (UKUUG has negociated a discount on
< them, as have some other national UUG's), but are not *that* magic.
< A news feed from the US of all technical groups - leaving out all talk 
< and most rec as at present in Europe - would cost about $50,000 per
< year in transmission costs over IPSS (X.25), but only about $10,000
< via Trailblazer.    Would you pay $10K for news?  Some would, but
< not many.   
Ok. So it costs $10K. Let's see. 10,000/20 sites (i figure there are more
than 20 sites that could all feed each other with ONE site calling the
US. That comes out to $500/year. That's $41.00/month. That's less than
my phone bill WITHOUT long distance! I pay 3 times that much now just for
my phones!  How about 40 sites? That makes it $20.50/month. That's not
bad!  All it takes is a group of people to work together. That is not
that hard to do considering how much they would save!

< 
< So we have to club together to cover transmission costs to our national
< backbones.   We also have to pay for the associated computer and staff
< costs -- most Eunet backbone sites are universities, and being both
< non-profitmaking and also less well endowed than many US universities
< they cannot absorb the cost of providing a service to lots of other
< establishments that are not directly associated,  (why should the
< University of Kent (ukc) subsidise STC or University Dortmund (unido)
< subsidise netmbx?   Explain your reasons using not more than 5000
< words.   Your paper will be marked by the University's auditors).
You all pay more for your News feed now and you would not have to deal
with the backbones! You can create your own for less!

< Even in the UK the subscription cost of a news feed ($50 per month),
< very reasonable for any commercial organisation, is too much for
< someone trying to get their own news feed to their own home computer,
< and I understand it is higher in Germany.   Such people could sign up
< with a public access site, and read news there instead of trying to get
< it all on their own machine.   In Germany, netmbx (Berlin) offers very
< reasonable rates for news reading (plus a little more if you post).
< I do not know which news groups netmbx gets.   Mail me if you want
< their PSS number.  I regret that I do not know a UK public access site,
< though I believe they exist.
Public access sites are another way to go. That lowers the costs for everyone
while supplying news and mail to as many people as possible! I run such 
a site at my house. I get a full news feed and charge just enough to break even.
Nothing more. If people work together then the costs come out to be VERY
minimal!


-- 
Lance Ellinghouse (A.K.A Lancelot of Caid)
"Life is a game of Chess, some are Kings, some Queens, some pawns, and
 some just get taken." - Lancelot
ucla-an!hermix!lancelot!lance; ucla-an!hermix!lancelot!lance at ee.UCLA.EDU