🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4ohqnm$jlg@sjx-ixn5.ix.netcom.com> telesave@ix.netcom.com(Gerald Madden) writes:
>From: telesave@ix.netcom.com(Gerald Madden)
>Subject: Free $10.00 Phone Card
>Date: 29 May 1996 15:33:10 GMT

>The hottest site in town with the coolest telephone rate around.

>12 cents per minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

>Free $10.00 phone card with one month trial.

>http://www.holidayland.com/holiday/telesave/welcome.html

   I've seen these offers since 1983, and they have all been essentially the 
same.  They work like this with only slight variation:  the carrier signs up 
a number of customers at the discount rate, but then has trouble supplying the 
connection facilities to handle all the calls, which tend to peak at 
particular times of day, depending who the service is targeted toward.  The 
carrier does not make timely payments to suppliers (such as MCI or Sprint), 
because many "bottom-fisher" customers do not make timely payments.  The 
carrier then goes under after:  a) skimming a few months worth of revenue for 
executive compensation, b) suffering from cash flow problems because of high 
receivables, or c) both.
   Even so, it makes sense to sign up for a service like this if:
	1) you are willing to tolerate possible gaps in network availability
	2) you recognize the liklihood of needing to change carriers again soon
	2) you are not a business with labor-intensive switch programming
	   to route calls to the carrier
	3) you make certain that the service is month-to-month, not a contract
	4) your phone bill is high enough to make the per-minute savings 
	   meaningful.