Full Internet connections cost about $17,000/year for a dedicated 56 kb line, plus a one-time charge of $10,000 for the router and initial connection. A 56 kb line will adequately meet the low-end needs of most schools and many colleges. Price wars should begin steadily dropping prices. Full Internet connection is the option of choice, but realistically, if we all had full Internet connections tomorrow, it would take months or even years for most of us to begin to tap their real potential, resulting in a major waste of money for underutilized full access. In addition, as the Internet currently stands, it could not handle the additional load of all 83,000 schools and their communities jumping on the Internet all at once.
Predictor: Odasz, Frank
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “Public Access to the Internet,” edited by Brian Kahin and James Keller carries the chapter, “Issues in the Development of Community Cooperative Networks” by Frank Odasz, the director of Big Sky Telegraph, Western Montana College of the University of Montana. He writes: ”Full Internet connections cost about $17,000/year for a dedicated 56 kb line, plus a one-time charge of $10,000 for the router and initial connection. A 56 kb line will adequately meet the low-end needs of most schools and many colleges. Price wars should begin steadily dropping prices. Full Internet connection is the option of choice, but realistically, if we all had full Internet connections tomorrow, it would take months or even years for most of us to begin to tap their real potential, resulting in a major waste of money for underutilized full access. In addition, as the Internet currently stands, it could not handle the additional load of all 83,000 schools and their communities jumping on the Internet all at once.”
Biography:Frank Odasz was an assistant professor of computing education at the University of Colorado and the director of Big Sky Telegraph, a popular community network of the time. He was widely known as a speaker on community networking and educational technologies. (Technology Developer/Administrator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Cost/Pricing
Name of publication: Public Access to the Internet (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Issues in the Development of Community Cooperative Networks
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 131, 132
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne