Old news service dies on one more ISP
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Newsgroups an expensive service to run for a very small and dwindling population of users, says TelstraClear
By Stephen Bell | Wellington | Thursday, 27 November, 2008
TelstraClear is withdrawing the ageing Usenet news and discussion service from its ISPs, Paradise and ClearNet at the end of November.
The move has sparked a fresh round of discussion on the future of the Usenet service as a whole among the habitués of nz.general and other locally focussed newsgroups. The reason is simply that the newsgroups are an expensive service to run for a very small and dwindling population of users, says TelstraClear spokesman Chris Mirams.
“There are a handful of customers and it’s no longer economically viable. It’s really a legacy program.”
The move has been planned for several months, he says, but the ISPs had to give adequate notice to its upstream provider, Giganews.
Usenet is part of online history, predating the general availability of the internet. Many users regard it as the original version of social networking.
Telecom abandoned Usenet in mid-2006.
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