Read an article in Forbes on the plane the other day saying that OC3 prices have fallen about 92% in less than a year. It's down to USD $2500/month for a New York-London circuit, for example.

Won't be long before we can all get one in our houses. . . or is that just a geek-dream?

I was reading that all teleco lines are getting cheaper, i will try to dig up that article some were!:D

You have to remember, there's a big difference between a telco circut and an actual Oc3

the Circut is only the point A to B line (Point A being your office , Point B being the ISP, i.e, Verio, ATT, MCI, Qwest, Sprint etc)

You still have to buy bandwidth for that line which can get up there in cost :)

How much is bandwidth?

a full Oc3 can run anywhere from 40,000 a month to 60,000 a month or up, i've not price shopped around in a while so I don't claim to be acurate :)

Ahh, so Forbes is saying an OC3 cost about $80K 18 months ago. But that still doesn't include moving data? So the current $2500 is just to get the empty pipe?

Cancel my order! :D

Sounds like forbes has it all wrong......

But yes, to put it into those terms assuming its just a circut or local loop than yah 2500 a month for an empty pipe...


I don't know where or what forbes is exactly comparing so I can't say for certain but if thats a full 155mbit Oc3 then sign me up for 20!

If forbes is right then I WANT ONE TOO!!!! :D

Well, I found the online link to the article. You guys read it and tell us what you think it means. The article is indirectly about the cost of OC3's, but you'll figure it out. There's a chart toward the bottom.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0806/052.html

You'll probably have to create an account to view it, since it's a back issue (Aug. 6).

Originally posted by alchiba
Read an article in Forbes on the plane the other day saying that OC3 prices have fallen about 92% in less than a year. It's down to USD $2500/month for a New York-London circuit, for example.

Won't be long before we can all get one in our houses. . . or is that just a geek-dream?


Where do we sign ? :D

An OC3 (actually 1/64 of an OC-192) from New York to London costs $2500/month. Note the "from New York to London".

If you want to transfer huge volumes of data between, say, two datacenters in NY and London, you'd be paying somewhere around that price. If you want to serve up that amount of traffic to people scattered around the Internet -- meaning using some transatlantic bandwidth, some transcontinental bandwidth, some transpacific bandwidth, and lots of "last mile" bandwidth -- then you're going to be paying much more.

It is always going to be much cheaper to deliver bandwidth from point A to point B than it is to deliver bandwidth from point A to *everywhere*, solely from the point of view of routing (point-to-point bandwidth doesn't need it).

cperciva, I think I'm understanding you. I take it that the OC3 fees are just the beginning, that you're charged for each leg of journey? In other words, the $2500 just gets you from NY to London, but bandwidth charges pile up as your packets move beyond that?

Originally posted by alchiba
cperciva, I think I'm understanding you. I take it that the OC3 fees are just the beginning, that you're charged for each leg of journey? In other words, the $2500 just gets you from NY to London, but bandwidth charges pile up as your packets move beyond that?

More or less, yes. Of course it is infeasible to charge based on where each individual packet is going, so you'll just end up paying a rate based on your total traffic and the "average distance" that packets travel. (That average distance is one reason why bandwidth is cheaper in the US than in Europe).

At a rough approximation, there are two costs associated with "running the Internet": Pipes, such as the aforementioned OC3 from NY to London, and routers which switch packets between these pipes. Due to massive overcapacity of fiber at the moment, the prices for the "pipes" have dropped dramatically (as you mentioned, 92%). The routers, however, have not dropped in price significantly, thus the relatively stable prices for transit.

(Side note: This is very likely one of the reasons why Cogent has such cheap bandwidth: By restricting their network to a small number of high-bandwidth drops they can keep their routing tables smaller, meaning that they can use cheaper routers in addition to the already-cheap pipes).

Hmm, so in keeping with the "information highway" metaphor, a router in the sense you're describing is a kind of toll booth?

Originally posted by alchiba
Hmm, so in keeping with the "information highway" metaphor, a router in the sense you're describing is a kind of toll booth?

Hmm... not really. More like a very expensive set of traffic lights.

ROFL

. . . but you popped my balloon. . .

Well its still pretty good for corporations communicating with each other.