here's the scoop on PC-Pursuit ($25/month buys unlimited data calls)
Werner Uhrig
net.news.group. I redirect further follow-ups to net.news, though. ---WRU ]
Luck has it, that in "cleaning house", I found the letter I had received
from the PC PURSUIT MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE of TELENET COMMUNICATIONS
CORPORATION, Steve Del Rocco, who offered more info to be obtained by
calling him at 1-800-368-4215, M-F 8am-5pm EDT.
Calling him provided me with an 800-number of a FidoNet-BBS to call to
download several files with more info about the current status of PC-Pursuit:
1-800-835-3001. (300/1200baud, no parity, 8 data & 1 stop bits).
it instructs you to login with a generic login-name "PC PURSUIT", pwd=PC.
There is a 15 minute limit and you may have to dial in twice to get all info.
It seems that there is a daily limit of 30 minutes usage for each account,
so you may find the system refusing to log you in with a message to that
effect - I just asked, and they do reset that periodically (I assume after
minutes, but don't really know how long it takes).
Very nice and convenient set-up. Everything has a very good "feel" to it.
At this point I am torn between uploading some of those files and writing
a quick summary; I guess, I'll do both. To the best of my knowledge .....:
GTE has a X.25 packet switching network in place between major business
centers in the US, and in August '85, they introduced PC-Pursuit, a new type
of service between some (12) areas; i.e. unlimited data-calls at 300/1200baud
during non-business hours at a fixed rate. I assume this looked very
promising, but did not fill the capacity, possibly because at these hubs many
people already have such a variety of BBSes available locally - but out in the
boonies, you could hear the "masses" salivating .... (-:.
Around June '86 they must have finalized a deal with TeleNet to offer access
to PC-Pursuit via their network and when I heard about that I contacted them.
The service was "not yet" offered in Austin, Texas then, but in mid September:
"TELENET WAS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT PC-PURSUIT IS NOW ACCESSIBLE FROM EVERY
LOCAL ACCESS NUMBER ON ITS PUBLIC DATA NETWORK. PC-USERS FROM HUNDREDS OF
CITIES ACROSS THE US CAN NOW MAKE LONG-DISTANCE DATA CONNECTIONS THAT ARE
ONLY A LOCAL PHONE-CALL AWAY. PC PURSUIT ALLOWS USERS TO REACH OTHER PERSONAL
COMPUTER USERS IN 14 MAJOR METROPOLITAN AREAS, 24 HOURS A DAY, VIA THE TELENET
NETWORK. SUBSCRIBERS ALSO HAVE THE ABILITY TO DIAL THOUSANDS OF FREE PUBLIC
DATABASES AT 300 OR 1200 BPX [sic] AND DOWNLOAD AND UPLOAD PUBLIC DOMAIN
SOFTWARE, RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS THROUGH FREE DATA-BASES, SHOP AND
ADVERTISE IN ELECTRONIC CATALOGS, AND SEND/RECEIVE MESSAGES. ALL AT ONE LOW
FLAT MONTHLY RATE!
...UNLIMITED CALLS DURING THE EVENING AND WEEKEND FOR A FLAT RATE OF $25/MONTH.
DAYTIME USAGE IS EITHER $10.50/HOUR OR $14/HOUR, DEPENDING ON ACCESS LOCATION.
THERE IS ALSO A ONE-TIME REGISTRATION FEE OF $25 PER USER."
My investigation today presents me with the following picture:
Currently, there are 14 population centers accessable by dialing into the
system via Telenet. By the end of the year it is planned to expand to 25.
The 14 current areas are: (drum roll...)
Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, L.A.,
N.Y., Philladelphia, San Francisco, Wash DC, Seattle, Newark.
(there is a file listing all exchanges on the BBS)
Very shortly, 3 new areas will be added, which I believe to be in the
sub-tropical south-east, somewhere near Dallas, and close to L.A. (well, I was
asked not to spell them out).
You need a Visa or M/C-card, with American Express and CheckFree E-transfers
available shortly.
Did I ask about bottlenecks and service level? you bet!!! Chicago and
San Francisco are currently the busiest ones (anyone care to guess why?)
New capacity is added in such cases within 3 weeks (no idea why that magic
number). at 1200 baud, XMODEM transfers are effectively giving you a rate
of ~800baud (unless you use the SuperCharged one without error-detection,
of course), and YMODEM using 1K blocks, achieves over 1000baud. 2400baud
connections are "not yet" available, but expect them shortly (by January?).
Questions I still have open and will try to get answered tomorrow:
1) is there an additional cost for dialing into TELENET? probably not.
ANSWER: NO
2) can I access from more than one location? i.e. while traveling?
I hope so, but anticipate a 'no'.
ANSWER: YES. TELENET is available in 400 cities and 18,000 exchanges
unfortunately, you have to carry a "booklet" listing the access numbers.
no such thing as a standard number, 800, 950, or otherwise.
3) WHAT are the "evening hours"? 5pm to 8am, local time, I'd expect.
ANSWER: 6pm to 7am local time (strikes me as reasonable)
4) WHEN will 2400 baud be available? give me a definite data (yep, I'm
already spoiled)
ANSWER: starting January (probably not everywhere at the same time?)
5) Is there a guaranteed quality of service? Hah, that should be a hard one.
ANSWER: UH, hmmm, well, .... NO.
6) How do bottlenecks manifest themselves? slow response? can't get in?
ANSWER: you get a busy signal and get in or through.
7) Is there any concern about how much you are online?
ANSWER: NO. but if the system detects you being idle, you get logged
off after 25 minutes.
...I have this image of a scene like in that pizza commercial where a guy made
an announcement to the press that you could get this special-good deal just
for the asking, and nobody waits around until he finishes but all run off to
get there first .... Hey, tell them Werner from Austin brought this to your
attention. Maybe they'll thank me for it. <-- blatant, self-promoting ad (-:
PS: I'll post the online newsletter of August 86 shortly, which explains
things in their words. It wasn't copyrighted but I asked their
permission anyway. Flame me if you think I'm doing a commercial
enterprise "too much" a favor; I'll, probably, cringe and get on with
my life anyway ....
For those of you with ARPA-access you can FTP the newsletter yourself already
from this site. It's named public/pc-pursuit.news-8608 in the FTP-directory.