Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 23:53:18 -0500
From: Ted White <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Modems (was Re: Email issues...)
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Keith F. Lynch wrote:

>  "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com> wrote:
>
> > "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net> wrote:
> >
> >> Actually, KeithLynch.net isn't in Virginia, it's in Minnesota.
>
> > Even better. ;-)
>
>  Ironically, Minnesota is one of the few states I've never been to.
>
> > As for the ancient technology you are using, it is getting rare.
> > I've been looking for a voice modem (one I can use to dial out,
> > play wav files through and read DTMF tones back from) and they are
> > pretty rare these days.
>
>  I'm not sure what you mean.  You mean an ordinary external modem?  I
>  know that shell accounts, dialup BBSs, and timesharing services are
>  getting rare, but those aren't the only things that modems are used
>  for.  Aren't broadband users still in the minority?  I'd think there
>  were more modems in use now than ever before, most of them for PPP
>  Internet accounts.

I doubt it, although I have no numbers, one way or the other.  But with
broadband available to anyone who has cable, and DSL for most others,
and the current interest in downloading videos (YouTube, MySpace, et
al), I suspect broadband use has overtaken dialups.  I note that AOL,
for example, is abandoning its dialup business (which was abandoning AOL
and dialups anyway).

--Ted White