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Technology Stocks : Nortel Networks (NT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don S.Boller who wrote (405)	3/25/1998 9:38:00 PM
From: kas1	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14638

> don't they use DC, whereas we use AC??? no. i am not an expert on electrical systems, but i don't think there's anywhere in the world (other than your car, ha ha) that uses DC. european household outlets do run on 240v as opposed to our 120v, but that shouldn't make a difference. the difference that does matter is that their infrastructure is built around every large area having a "hub" that sends out low-voltage power to subscribers, whereas in the us, houses tap pretty much directly into high-voltage converters. the difference stems from the differing demographic and geographic situation in the us and europe. we are much, much more spread out, even within urban areas. it wouldn't make sense to send low-voltage current all the way across orange county, so it's cheaper to give each house (or cluster of houses) a hi-lo converter box. since european cities are smaller, it's more economical to have one central hi-lo converter and suffer the inefficiency of sending low-voltage current (transmission is more efficient at high voltage) over the shorter distances. nt's current challenge is building a device -- or a signal -- that will survive thru the numerous hi-lo converters we have in our power grid. usually such a converter would kill the data signal. someone please correct me if any of this is wrong.