🚀 go-pugleaf

David Gast responds to my article wherein I noted:
  
>> *We* are not spending this money.  Our telephone system suppliers are
>> spending it

with the comment:

> If the telcos are spending the money, you can bet they are charging us.
> It all goes in the rate base.  If you don't or can't use the features,
> you will pay anyway.  Now it is true that the telcos charge extra
> for ISDN, but the last the time I saw the rates, they were extremely
> cheap--that is, less than the cost of regular service.
 
The Integrated Services Digital Network is provided by the long distance
companies.  Access to it can be mediated by the local exchange carrier,
but does not have to be.  Any company with sixteen to eighteen phone
lines can go around the local exchange carrier directly to the switch
of the long distance company.  If you can find about sixteen neighbors
who would like to spend less on long distance (a nickel a minute less)
you can form a co-op and run your own connection directly to the long
distance company switch.

The point is, the local exchange carrier is indeed a protected monopoly
with prices set the way you describe.  The long distance carriers are
not, their pricing is driven by the marketplace.  Most of the capital
investment in ISDN is being done by the long distance carriers.

I would be delighted to help tear down the monopoly of the local exchange
carrier.  If there is anyone out there who is intrigued by the idea of
setting up a neighborhood telephone system, communicate with me, we
can work out the details and figure out if it is worth fooling with.
(The technical details would work.  You might be so far from the long
distance company's switch that the wire would cost too much.)

Daniel Lance Herrick