From: Joe Overholt <joe@planetc.com>
Subject: Planet Connect Information
Date: 1996/12/05
Message-ID: <32A65F05.7019@planetc.com>
cc: alt.usenet.satellite
content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
organization: Planet Systems, Inc.
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reply-to: joe@planetc.com
newsgroups: biz.pagesat
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Since the news of NCIT closing down reached their subscribers we have
received many phone calls. In order to give everyone as much information
as possible, I am using this area to give to you as much information
about Planet Connect as possible. 

Planet Connect presently operates three satellite data services that
specialize in BBS, Usenet, and commercial data services. The 19.2 baud
service as been operating since 1993 and has approximately 500
subscribers in North America. This service provides Fidonet, weather,
UPI news, TV Listings, Sports, Stocks and a limited amount of Usenet
data to subscribers. This feed as a capacity of about 150 megs per day
of compressed data. 

We also supply two identical 128K data services, one to North America
and one to Europe. These feeds include the same data as the 19,200
service but concentrate mainly on Usenet. About 90 per cent of the
traffic is Usenet. The Usenet feed is a near real-time feed with a T-1
news server feeding the uplink constantly with the latest postings. The
delay between posting and sending over the satellite is normally a few
hours. At times when the Usenet feed becomes very busy the delay may be
longer since the satellite feed is limited to 128K at this time. We
receive our news from UUNET, BBNPLANET and we are presently testing
others. We send all the conferences we can find which is presently over
22,000. We do not edit binaries or make any attempt to edit the feed
unless the amount of USENET traffic is to too large to pass through the
128K feed. 

Our satellite receiver is a very advanced commercial quality receiver
which features built in error correction capability, automatic LNB
tracking, and advanced addressibility. Unfortunely these extra features
add to the cost of the receiver which sells for $888.00 with the
computer interface card. 

Most of the dishes and LNBs used with the Pagesat system will also work
with the Planet Connect System. We recommend a 3 foot (90 CM.) or larger
dish. You should be able to connect the Planet Connect data receive to
the same cable as your Pagesat system used and continue to operate. The
satellite for our 128K system is Galaxy 4 which is located at 99 degrees
in the satellite arc. This is about mid way between the old and new
Pagesat satellite locations. The Hughes satellite provides a strong
signal to all 48 states and southern Canada. For better quality
reception we recommend a 1 meter or 1.2 meter dish although many of our
subscribers use the 3 foot dish. 

Presently our software is DOS based but Linux and Unix software is about
ready for beta testing. To use the Dos software, subscribers connect a
Dos based 386 or 486 to their network and copy the satellite files into
the News machine for processing. The files are compressed with a PKZIP
compatible format and the uncompressed files are in the raw UUCP format. 

Planet Systems, Inc. is the parent company of Planet Connect and has
been incorporated since 1993. Prior to this company I started a TV
Shopping channel called Shop At Home in the same building and took the
company public. I have been operating from the same location in Newport,
Tennnessee since 1985. Shop At Home is now on the Nasdaq stock market
under the symbol of SATH. I remain on the Board of Directors and still
own a sizable amount of stock. The company is in line to do about 100
million in sales during their next business year. Planet Systems, Inc.
is not associated with Shop At Home, Inc. Planet Systems, Inc. is
operating with no bank on other outside debt. Payables are normal and
sales have grown ever year since the company started. We have 12
employees and also operate an ISP in 13 local counties. I own all of the
stock in Planet Systems, Inc. at this time. 

Although Planet Connect gained a good reputation for furnishing Fidonet
to BBS operators, we have constantly upgraded our Usenet feed to include
a near real-time feed and all groups. When we first started sending
Usenet a couple of years ago we had delays of 1 to 3 days and other
terrible problems. That is all behind us and we have a very good feed at
this this time. With the addition of our new Linux/Unix software, we
believe our Usenet feed will match or exceed the quality of any land
line feed without using up your landline bandwidth. 

We think that Usenet traffic will increase each month while faster
modems and ISDN put more pressure on your landline connections. The
Planet Connect receiver can switch to 256k BPS speed without any
modifications or upgrades. We expect to move to this speed in 1997 to be
able to deliver over 2.2 gigs of compressed files each day. A satelllite
Usenet feed is certainly less expensive than another T-1. 

We presently have about 20 receivers in stock with more being shipped to
us in about 2 weeks. They sell for $888.00. We offer a money back refund
in 60 days if you are somehow not happy with the service. The Usenet
service can be purchased for $50 per month or $400 per year. For more
informaton visit our web site at www.planetc.com. The site is difficult
to seach at this time so feel free to address questions to
info@planetc.com. Call 423-623-8300 between the hours of 9 AM and 9 PM
eastern Monday to Friday or noon to 5 pm on Saturday.   

There is a new newsgroups called alt.usenet.satellite which will be
supporting. We urge you to use this area to discuss our system. We will
also be improving our web site with more information about our software
and hardware. We encourage outside work on software and will furnish you
with source code to help develop more capabilities.

Thank you for your time.

Joe Overholt
President, Planet Systems, Inc./Planet Connect
joe@planetc.com