RCN vs Mediaone cable modem experiences?

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

> On Fri, 16 Jul 1999, John Chambers,,,781-647-1813 wrote:
> > What I wonder is when we Internet nerd types will be able  to  get  a
> > real  (i.e.,  full-time)  Internet  hookup  at home for an affordable
> > price.

Before RCN got its ISP service up and running to my house in June (well,
they installed it in March, but it didn't work properly until June), I
set up a full-time hookup via Erol's.

> >  They can't be
> > done via phone links to ISPs, because a permanent hookup this way  is
> > prohibitively expensive.

My cost was the usual $20/month fee, plus a phone line which cost about
the same.  Total cost about $40/month.

I currently work for one of the 'prohibitively expensive' ISP's which
can provide the alternative:  $80/month for a dedicated dial port plus
the $20/month phone line at your end.  Total cost about $100/month.

The difference between the two is in the IP addressing:  with the
Erol's service, I had to do a little trick with my 'ip-up' script to
post my dynamic IP address to a web page tucked away somewhere on another
host, so I could find my home machine.  For the kind of home access I'm
doing now (telnetting in and running 'elm' or moderate programming and
sysadmin stuff), it wasn't that much of an inconvenience running with
the Erol's dynamic-IP dialup.

All the significant investments by ISPs and CLECs these days are going
into xDSL and docsis cable-modem services.  Those are going for an
entry-level price of $40/month, on up to about $600/month for
higher-speed DSL service.  There is much less activity among companies
seeking the larger market of $10-20/month users.  I have the feeling there
won't be much $20/month service of any type (phone, cable, Internet,
electric, gas, whatever) before many more years pass.

Of course, I can also recall the $8/month phone line and the $4/month cable
TV bill dating back about 15 years.  I sorta miss those.  But I don't
miss the $21K/yr paychecks.  ;-)

-rich
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