Is a NEED for more COMMERCIAL usenet feed providers?

[Karl Swartz]

In article <1155 at ndmath.UUCP> milo at ndmath.UUCP (Greg Corson) writes:
>A fairly simple question...I've been noticing that usenet mail/news feeds
>are getting harder and harder to get lately because of the mounting number
>of machines that want onto the net.
>
>Do you think there is a NEED for another system which can provide usenet
>feeds and mail feeds for a FEE to people who couldn't get them otherwise?

Greg, I know this isn't exactly what you had in mind, but what about
a west coast uunet?  While helping a (non-local) friend look into
news feed options, I realized that uunet costs a *lot* more for west
coast folks than those who are closer.  This is based on a TrailBlazer
and paying your own LD phone bills.  From much of the east coast, it's
about 1/3 the cost of calling the 800 numbers, but from the west the
costs are pretty much a toss-up.

Of course, this theme could be continued to regional uunet machines--
if the coasts have them, what about the midwest?  The problem with
that is that the costs of maintaining multiple machines soon drive
the costs too high.  Not sure where the breakpoint is.

A different way of improving things is the regional backbone idea,
like the folks in Michigan are doing, maybe combined with the
obligation to feed another site if you get a feed--make leaf sites
do their share and pass along the favor.

-- 
Karl Swartz		|UUCP	{emoryu1,pacbell,decvax!formtek}!ditka!kls
1-412/937-4930 office	|	{pitt,psuvax1}!idis!formtek!ditka!kls
			|BIX	kswartz
"I never let my schooling get in the way of my education."  (Twain)