Connectivity Providers Database

From: John Houlker <j.houlker@waikato.ac.nz> To: Steve Goldstein--Ph +1-202-357-9717 <sgoldste@cise.cise.nsf.gov>, Steve Diggs <steved@fiji.ucsd.edu>, pdsmith@nsf.gov CC: arm@aqua.whoi.edu, /PN=ROBERT.HEINMILLER/O=OMNET/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com, "Jay Fein,NSF" </DD.UN=J.FEIN/O=OMNET/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com>, randy@psg.com, peter_yat@antdiv.gov.au, u_glmh@vaxc.nerc-bas.ac.uk, Sunil Kumar <KUMAR_S@usp.ac.fj>, John Clayton <CLAYTON_J@usp.ac.fj> Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 10:10 +1200 Steve, Steve, Pat, et al sg>(Pat, Andy, others) feel free to offer advice/assistance to Steve Diggs. Wow, what a coincidence - just yesterday I sent a message to The University of The South Pacific (based in Suva, Fiji) discussing our next moves as to how we can improve their communications, and I asked if they had any Federal Agency projects! I've enclosed the message. sd>Basically, I have found out that the only thing that Fiji has in sd>the way of international networking is a 2400 bps telephone link for uucp sd>to New Zealand. I have been in touch with the Sysadmin there has he has sd>yet to even try a 9600bps Telebit modem over these phone lines. Indeed for some time now the USP has been exchanging e-mail via the University of Waikato in New Zealand with a 2400bps modem. We have tried V.32 9600bps modems, but without success (it isn't clear why, but it does seem the line quality isn't so good). A Telebit has been planned for quite a while and is right now on its way. The immediate intention is to increase their price/performance, but we are also looking at increased functionality, and one option is dial-up SLIP. We have also been working (for a year or maybe two now) on prospects for a full Internet connection to Fiji using a leased line (either INTELSAT or on ANZCAN). We have looked at several ways to cope with the high cost - one possibility has been to share a Fiji-New Zealand analogue circuit with The Digital Equipment Corporation, i.e. to mux a 14k4 or 19K2 link with one half running DEC's EasiNet and the other half an Internet link. The NZ end of this is now ready in the sense that a DECUS machine in the DEC office has a connection to the NZ internet and can therefore act as the planned link point. I'm trying to find out if DEC (and the USP) are still interested. Another possibility is a 2400bps digital circuit to Australia (and there is a chance the AARNET may able to provide some funding assistance). Yet another alternative I have suggested, is a circuit to Hawaii or FIX-WEST; if their traffic is largely exchange with the US/Internet rather than Australia or New Zealand, this may make more sense and could well benefit from the PACCOM aggregation discounts - I've asked The USP if they have costing on 1/2 circuits to the USA (once I have that - and, if such services exist - I'll ask Torben for PACCOM 1/2 circuit costs). sd>There will be an experiment next year (sponsored by NSF) in Fiji and the sd>science team will need to have some sort of communications from there back sd>to the USA for the networked group of workstations that they are taking sd>with them. I work for V. Ramanathan's group here and part of my charter sd>is to investigate these things. If this is land based there could well be some way to combine activity with The USP. If so, what sort of load are you anticipating? sd>One person in particular had talked to me about a proposal to NSF sd>to fund an internet-type network in the South Pacific area. Do you sd>know more about the status of this? Fascinating! Note that a year or more ago Torben suggested that PACCOM could become involved in spreading The Internet to a somewhat wider region in The Pacific using VSAT - I recall it was going to take about 10 sites to become economic (and even then would require subsidies), but there was some difficulty with the cost of earth stations as all but one of the satellites were in inclined orbits (being low or out of station keeping fuel). By the way, note the Sandia project I mentioned below - activity like this could certainly benefit from Internet coverage in the Pacific, but of course its not easy and in most cases satellite services are the only real option (Fiji does, however, also have services on the ANZCAN cable which links Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii). ps> First off, the obvious choice is ps> the Fijian telephone system. What is the cost of an ps> international telephone call? If it is US$3/min or less, The USP dials us, so I don't know their charges, but it costs ~US$1.00/ minute for a call from NZ to Fiji (US$.80/minute from midnight to 08:00). We do expect better value for money once we get a faster modem running successfully of course. BTW X.25 services were being planned for Fiji (and several other South Pacific islands, linking with Australia) - I've asked what's happended about that. ps> What is the ps> quality of the international telephone connections? The the ps> quality is good, and the cost per minute is tolerable, then ps> the use of a dial-up TCP/IP router (Telebit NetBlazer, for ps> example), might be a reasonable thing to do if true ps> networking is the intended goal. As I indicated above, we have had some problems with line quality; we are hoping the Telebit will cope better than the V.32 modems we tried. Certainly it is a goal for the USP to achieve full Internet functionality - this could be defeated by cost, but its worth trying. ps> A group called PSAT (for Pan ps> Pacific Education and Communicatons Experiments), a user of ps> ATS-3, has gained control of an old NOAA geosynchronous ps> meterological satellite that has a wide-band S-Band ps> transponder capable of supporting communications. A New ps> Zealand company has developed a moderately priced earth ps> station (approx. US$25K, turn key) that provides telephony ps> quality voice (highly compressed), or 9.6 kb/s data, or fax ps> (not simultaneously - one at a time). This requires an ps> approximate 3 meter antenna on a simple tracking pedestal ps> (the satellite is GOES-3, and it has been allowed to drift ps> into an inclined orbit, so tracking is necessary). So, for ps> about US$50K, Fiji could have a GOES-3 PSAT earth station ps> and one could be placed at, say, Hawaii, so that Torben ps> Nielsen could provide a PACCOM link for Internet support. I ps> should add that the satellite time is FREE. A similar ps> possibility exists for GOES-2, as that NSF/DPP has ps> succeededd in getting NOAA's permission to use GOES-2 to ps> support communications to South Pole Station (GOES-2 is ps> inclined at about 11 deg with respect to the equator now, ps> and is visible for about 2-3 hours per day at Pole). GOES-2 ps> has just been relocated to 106 deg West longitude, which I ps> believe results in an approx. 17 deg horizon clearance in ps> New Zealand, close enough to Fiji (for gov't work, as they ps> say). Torben has mention this before, but somehow it has so far not surfaced as an option for PACCOM - perhaps uncertainly about the future of the satellite capacity. ps> Another possibility would be using the Southwest Pacific ps> spot beam on AUSSAT A3. I'll ask my AUSSAT contacts what they can say about this. ps> All that remains is INTELSAT. I believe the circuit quotes we've had so far are for INTELSAT (ANZCAN cable goes through Fiji but I'm not sure if services on it terminate there). A global beam could easily support 64 kb/s full duplex service, and I am sure that someone like Telecom NZ would love to take a bid on providing the service (protect your wallet!). The satellite circuit costs (for 2 half circuits) shouldn't cost more than about US$10K/month (John Houlker, is this correct?). Fiji-New Zealand capacity is only available in the form of analogue circuits at present (AVD A3 - suitable for 14k4/19k2, and these cost about US$5k/month), but I've asked what it would take to interest NZ Telecom in providing digital. Digital services are available Fiji-Australia already. ps> 4. Before talking about running in one's own satellite ps> circuits, at least for a land based application in Fiji, it ps> would seem rational to go to the Fijian PTT and find out ps> what kind of options might exist via established national ps> telecommunications circuits. One will have to deal with the ps> local PTT in any event for putting in one's own satllite ps> system. This is the approach we've taken so far, but if there were a suitable requirement NZ Telecom say they would consider adding additional services - and of course some of the DIY options may be a good bet. Regards John ------- Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 17:57 +1200 From: John Houlker <j.houlker@waikato.ac.nz> Subject: PACCOM, leased lines, SLIP, Telebit T2500 To: Sunil Kumar <KUMAR_S@usp.ac.fj> Cc: John Clayton <CLAYTON_J@usp.ac.fj> Sunil Earlier we were discussing the possibilities of you achieving a full Internet connection either by a leased line to NZ (possibly shared with Digital) or to Australia, and the respective merits of a share in an analogue circuit running at 14.4kbps or perhaps 19.2kbps, and a digital link at 2400bps. I raised the issue of potential support for such connection through the PACCOM organisation, at the recent PACCOM conference. The consensus was that PACCOM should concentrate on being essentially a service provider, and given this approach it is not the right vehicle for `regional development' and such. I believe this is probably the correct view, as otherwise PACCOM could quickly fade away as its customers leave for "un-taxed" services offered elsewhere. Meanwhile an appropriate body that could have a charter for support of this type may be the APCCIRN (and in its liaison with the Internet Society, UN projects like the UNDP and UNESCO RINSEAP, and others). There is a meeting of the APCCIRN scheduled for the end of the year - have you received information about this? I also asked Geoff Huston about the possibility of Australian support (independent of what PACCOM or the APCCIRN might do); his response was that there is a chance but calls on the relevant funding source may change the situation quite quickly - so if you are interested you should make a specific proposal as soon as possible. Note that New Zealand probably cannot contribute apart from a possible aggregation discount if Waikato were to buy this end (even if it didn't connect to Waikato), and/or a possible circuit sharing arrangement with Digital (I've asked for the current status of this idea but haven't had a response yet). I'm trying to contact NZ Foreign Affairs about potential assistance, but its a long shot (I didn't have any luck the last time I tried several years ago). It could also be worth your while looking at a connection to the USA (either Hawaii or FIX-WEST), i.e. being a PACCOM member yourselves - it may be that such circuits are less expensive given that US 1/2 circuits are often well priced, and there are major aggregation discounts given the large number of PACCOM circuits already in place. Do you have a half circuit price to the USA? You could even receive US Federal Agency assistance if you were to have any NASA, DOE or NSF science project for example - are you aware of any such activity? One potential client I've just heard about (at the PACCOM meeting) is a project from the DOE (Sandia laboratories) to collect large amounts of near-realtime data from numerous islands in the Pacific. They are asking for assistance from PACCOM and I suggested that the USP with its spread across an large number of Island nations could become usefully involved. I hope to receive more information about this soon (initially it looks like the area is somewhat too far into the Western Pacific, but this may change). Yet another angle is X.25; did the X.25 service go in, and if so is it usefully priced? Responding to you recent questions: >In one of your earlier messages you mentioned that you will be >experimenting with SLIP off a DECserver 700. Would we be able to >use this? How? With PMDF? Do we require any other hardware/software? >How would we make the physical connections, and then use it with >whatever software is needed? We currently have SLIP only on a >DECsystem 5100 (RISC ULTRIX 4.1) >We have Ultrix Connection & DECUS UUCP for VAX/VMS; and TCP/IP, UUCP >on the DECsystem. SLIP is certainly worth investigating for dial-up connections; this could allow you to achieve full TCP/IP access to the Internet at least for the duration of your calls. PMDF doesn't support SLIP but can run e-mail over TCP/IP of course, and can use the Ultrix Connection in particular. SMTP Mail over TCP/IP is "pushed" so doesn't work well in a dial-up situation, but it wouldn't be hard to arrange a way your connection could trigger our PDMF system to start deliver. Network news could also be run over SLIP and has a mode where your system can ask for a download. You may be able to run the SLIP link with the Ultrix Connection (I don't know if it supports it, certainly the MultiNet software we have does), but if you have SLIP under ULTRIX then you only need this machine to be on your Ethernet to offer an IP routing service to other systems. By the way, we are now looking at a cisco router server as an alternative to the DECserver 700, as it also supports XRemote and will have AppleTalk Remote before long as well (and has recently dropped in price). >We have now received the Telebit T2500 modem that we were going to send >over to you. To which address should we ship it to? Good stuff; send it to: John Houlker Computer Services University of Waikato Ground Floor, Block G Gate 8, Hillcrest Road Hamilton NEW ZEALAND N.B. this last weekend we switched over to our new PABX - has that improved your line connect quality at all? Regards John -------