I have a theory...
Message from Eric Jorgenson on Apr 24 1997 4:39PM EST
<<You did not mention the fact they still run 14.4 modems on the majority of the dialins, every other ISP I know of has gone to 28.8 or better.>>
I've not heard this mentioned before. Where did you find this information?
I don't know if the original statement is or isn't true, but if it is, I suspect it is a bit misleading. Latest statistic I read was that right now, AOL's dialups are about 40% ANS, 30% SprintNet, and 30% BBN.
Virtually all of the SprintNet numbers are only v.32 (14,400), and many of AOL's rural POPs have never been upgraded. (and the 2400 bps Tymnet modems still work, but are heavily surcharged) One of AOL's hidden strengths was that they targeted rural areas which were not well served by other networks, and those POPs live on. There are a lot of lonely people out there in the middle of nowhere to whom contact with others via AOL chat -was- important.
So, if you counted up the individual access numbers, I could see that it might be possible that more of the phone numbers are v.32, (or less) not v.34 or v34+. However, I feel confident in saying that most of AOL's members do have access to v.34 modem pools (of course, they may all be busy :)) |
