RE: BT Internet 0800 access

["Timothy Morris" <mail@xxxxxxx>]

You've missed a fairly important apoint here. ISPs have a contention ratio
on their ports - usually around 20 to 1. This means that they have one
"modem" for every 20 subscribers. ISDN or analogue connections
will require
one of these ports whether any bandwidth is used or not. You are also a
little confused between your layers in the network architecture. ISDN
should
basically be thought of as a long serial cable. The packet switching part
is
handled by TCP/IP.

Tim.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: chris@xxxxxxx [mailto:chris@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 27 June 2000 18:09
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] BT Internet 0800 access
>
>
> Here's my hypothesis, which the knowledgeable are free to throw rocks
at.
> I think ISDN is basically a packet-switched network (is that right?)
so
> when you are connected but not actually sending/receiving data you are
> not actually using any bandwidth.  So BT doesn't really bother to drop
> your connection after 2 hours.  OTOH a modem connection requires the
same
> amount of bandwidth whether you are sending/receiving data or not. 
Since
> bandwidth is a limited resource BT will want to drop modem connections
> to allow other (hopefully paying) customers to get a look in.
>
> Of course, this doesn't explain why you don't get billed if your ISDN
> connection spans midnight.  Maybe you do get billed but haven't
noticed
> it yet?  Or maybe it would be more expensive to revise the
> billing software
> to cope with charging an 0800 call than it is to simply let people get
> away with it, bearing in mind that most people doing this are not
likely
> to be using much bandwidth at that time on night anyway.
>
> Just my 0.02 GBP including VAT worth.
>
> Chris.
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------
> From   : "Ian Wright" <ian.wright@xxxxxxx>
> To     : <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
> Date   : Fri, 23 Jun 2000 14:48:07 +0100
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] BT Internet 0800 access
> >If I dial 0800 I assume it will be free all of the time even
> after midnight.
> >I dial in via ISDN and have never been disconnected (onll sometime
after
> >midnight but I have never been up to see the time). Over a
> weekend it is up
> >for the whole time.
> >
> >It looks like the modem connections are dropped where ISDN is
forgotten
> >about.
> >
> >Ian
> --
> Chris Davenport
> chris@xxxxxxx
>
>
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