🚀 go-pugleaf

Yota Yoshimitsu (Yota.Yoshimitsu@f552.n632.z3.fidonet.org) wrote:

[all chomped]

I don't know if anyone outside the Newcastle area knows, but
there has been a bit of movement up here...

Saturday's Newcastle Herald carried an article on page 6
(reproduced without permission below), and a meeting on Saturday
was covered by both NBN and Prime news.  The same group (I'm
part of it, although I'm by no means the ringleader) also
notified ACA that they had a "big nasty incompetent corporation
tries to kill the little guy" story of national proportions just
waiting to be done.

The people responsible for orchestrating this "media circus"
(well, we hope that's what we'll end up with, anyway) are Dick
Strickleton, Arie G Upton, John Cocklin, Jason Bowe, and myself
- we're all sysops or ex-sysops in the Hunter Valley region of
NSW.

The Telstra rep (Gene Kitakos?) that our trouble-maker-in-chief
(Dick Strickleton) spoke to agreed that the decision was rash,
and that they'd either do it differently or not at all if they
had the chance to do it again.

Anyway, here's a copy of the Newcastle Herald peice (along with
Dick's comments):


----------------------------8<---------------------------------------------

                     COMPUTER OPERATORS FIGHT TELSTRA

A BATTLE between the communication giant Telstra and small time computer
operators is underway.

Mr Dick Strickleton, of Cook's Hill, is one of thousands of Bulletin Board
System Operators throughout Australia who regard their personal home computer
as a hobby.

Telstra does not.

Last week, Telstra sent about 700 letters to operators across Australia
informing them that as of the February the 1st the non-business usage rate of
$139.80 would change to a business rate of $274.80.

The Bulletin Board system, "the baby brother of the internet", provides
information to personal home computer users throughout Australia.

Mr Strickleton, a student, says the tariff increase had incensed operators.

"Most of us are students and it is a hobby for us", Mr Strickleton.

A meeting would be held at Islington Bowling Club at midday today to discuss
strategies to stop the increase.

A spokesperson from Telstra, Mr Hugo Armstrong, said "The change was made
because there were large bulletin board operators who were rorting the system
and masquerading as residential lines.

"We've found that there are some large bulletin borad operators operating out
of suburban houses and soaking up resources," Mr Armstrong said.

He said several complaints from operators had been lodged with the company.

"We are aware that there are a lot of small bulletin board operators who are
hobbyists and we will endeavour to work out a way to adjust the situation.

"No-one should be under the impression that it's about to generating huge
amounts of revenue. Telstra is simply seeking to meet it's obligation to law
and community... "

Mr Strickleton predicts that up to 90% of operators would close their systems
if the increase went ahead.

----------------------------8<---------------------------------------------

The interview was conducted on the previous Friday afternoon.

Very sorry to everyone about the "baby brother of the internet" bit... but at
the time it was the only way I could give the reporter any kind of insight into
our operations. I'm sure that this is well understood by anyone that has had
any sort of dealings with the press media.

Mr Armstrong's comments (to say the least) are somewhat contradictory and
border on outright lies. I am sure that everyone here can attest to his
underestimation of the situation as far as complaints are concerned, but his
comments regarding "suburban houses and soaking up resources" make us appear to
be nothing more than electronic criminals.

Dick.

-!- GoldED/2 2.42.G0214
 ! Origin: Hollow Pursuits- and computers are pigs. (049)-252-052 (3:622/422)

--cut here--

Any typos in the above stuff are Dick's fault, not mine...  :-)

The following boilerplate letter of complaint is being
distributing through FidoNet.  Austel is presently reviewing its
decision to allow the change to the BCS, so the more objections
submitted to them the better - feel free to use the letter.

---cut here---

                                                                     Joe User
                                                               123 Modem Rd.,
                                                           Capital City, 1234
                                                              Concerned State

Warren Duncan
5 Queens Rd.,
Melbourne, 2004,
Victoria


Mr Duncan,

As user of the Australian Bulletin Board Service community, I ______________
would like to express my concerns about the review of Section 4.2.2 of the
Basic Carriage Service tariff filed on July 1, 1995.

In light of Telstra's plans for the billing of community based public access
Bulletin Board Systems (B.B.S) there are grave fears within the free modeming
community that these systems will be forced to close down due to the
increased costs.  If Telstra are allowed to change the leasing rate for the
telephony lines of these FREE services then a great injustice will have been
done to the hobbyist systems that will be caught up in a procedure that can
only be described as bureaucratic box labelling.

Telstra does not know enough about the operations of such services at this
time and should not be considered competent to be able to make decisions
about the status of purely amateur, non-profit Bulletin Board Systems.

Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity, as a user of these
community service and hobbyist based systems, to insist that the relevant
section of the Basic Carriage Service be reviewed in accordance with stricter
guidelines for the definition of the type of online service that constitutes
a "business".


                                                        Yours sincerely,


                                                            {Signature}

---cut here---

BTW, there's no point hassling the Telecommunications Ombudsman
about this - it's now out of their jurisdiction.

Matt