[ih] Internet without entrenched factions?

[John Levine]

According to John Gilmore via Internet-history <gnu at toad.com>:
>This a funny statement, but it's obsolete, since the speed of light
>varies based on the medium, and Moore's Law *has* improved the speed of
>delivery of packets.  Sending packets to orbit and back (through air and
>vacuum) is much faster than sending them through a (glass) fiber optic
>cable covering a similar distance.

That used to be true, but now there's hollow core fiber where the signal
goes through air rather than glass.  I understand it also is lower loss
than conventional glass fiber so it needs fewer repeaters.

See, for example
https://www.nokia.com/blog/hollow-core-fiber-not-just-for-low-latency/

R's,
John
-- 
Regards,
John Levine, johnl at taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
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