Connectivity Providers Database

From: cms@home.demon.co.uk (Cliff Stanford) Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 21:32:10 +0000 As our members will know, Demon Internet has survived its first year as an Internet Provider in the UK. Our original business plans allowed for 400 basic rate members by the end of the first year. We exceeded that number by around a *thousand* and are rapidly approaching 1,500 members. The original plan was to purchase connectivity from PIPEX and run with a single Point of Presence in London, comprising eight high-speed modems and a single 64k leased line. It soon became clear that we would need many more than eight lines and that we would need to open other points of presence in the UK. We opened Warrington, giving local call access to both Manchester and Liverpool (061 + 051) dialling code areas. We should have our third point of presence within a few weeks in Edinburgh and further PoPs are planned for Cambridge, the North East and Birmingham although there is no set timescale. Once the Edinburgh PoP is installed, we shall have 40 modems available for dialup access: five times the original proposal. Whilst the vast majority of our members were happy with a single Internet address, it has become clear that a number of sites wanted a complete network connection. We were unable to provide this service whilst connecting to the Internet exclusively via either PIPEX or UKnet so the decision was taken to join the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX) and to put into place a direct connection to the United States. I am, therefore, pleased to announce the following: 1) Demon Internet is now a full member of the CIX. 2) Demon Internet is now provided with full Internet connectivity via a 64k leased line connected to SprintLink in Washington, DC. 3) The existing service will be continued at UKP 10 per month to provide single-node access to the Internet. 3) A new service will be launched at UKP 100 per month which will permit a Class C network to connect via a single, dedicated 14,400 bps dial-up link. Bi-directional dialup will be be an option at no extra cost. 4) Demon Internet will endeavour to set up peer-to-peer links with any other Internet providers in the UK. PIPEX have already agreed to peer with us. We very much hope that UKnet will do more: hence the cryptic comment in Deri Jones' message. In particular, UKnet is, as a previous academic site, in perhaps the best position to provide Application Relay for the whole of the .CO.UK domain whilst JANET gradually moves away from Grey-Book and towards Internet Mail. In addition, we shall be actively pursuing the possibility of a peer link with JIPS and/or an EBone link over the course of the next few months. In the meanwhile, Sprint were chosen as our major providers because of their excellent connectivity to Europe, to the UK and to many other parts of the world such as Malaysia and South America. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following people and organisations: 1) The founder members of Demon Internet who risked UKP 120 on an idea for a UK-network that might never have become more than a PIPE-dream. 2) The staff and management at PIPEX, without whom Demon Internet and, indeed affordable Internet in the UK, would not have existed. In particular, thanks to Peter Dawe for his encouragement to become a full CIX member and for his good wishes upon hearing of Demon's "direct connection" and to Keith Mitchell for all the patient technical help he gave us. 3) The staff and management at UKnet (GBnet/EUnet.GB/...) for all their help and assistance in making first the transition from PIPEX to UKnet and second the transition to a peer network. In particular, thanks to Peter Houlder for his encouragement to create a low-cost Internet solution and to James Aldridge and Roy Thurlow for their work in helping us configure a new peer network. 4) My partners and collegues for being my partners and collegues. Regards, Cliff. -- Demon Internet Services Internet Connectivity 081-343 3881 42 Hendon Lane from UKP 10 per month 081-349 0063 London N3 1TT England