🚀 go-pugleaf

> In article <5dsorm$7l$1@news.iastate.edu>,
> Kurt Glaesemann <kurtg@iastate.edu> wrote:
> 
> -} It's about time that people start paying for what they are using.  Using
> -} modems to connect to the internet costs the phone companies huge amounts of
> -} money because it's resulted in a huge surge in phone usage.
> 
> Then Jerry Whelan responded:
>
> Not all phone companies are experiencing these kinds of problems.  I
> believe BellSouth is one of the larger baby bells that is not complaining
> about congestion due to modem usage.  The reason?  Good planning.  

<Alot of very good stuff snipped---->

> Furthermore, if the local telcos had not mishandled the deployment of
> ISDN by insisting on such outrageous pricing that most people couldn't
> afford to buy it, they would not be in this predicament right now
> either.  

<More great stuff snipped----->

> <Diatribe>
> So, the way I see it, most of the local telephone companies made stupid
> management decisions

<Snipped again---->

> I seem to remember a little bill passed last year with a name something
> like the "Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996" that promised more
> competition and lower prices in exchange for more freedom on the part
> of the phone companies.  Well, welcome to the real world, babys, you've
> been fighting tooth and nail to keep other local phone service
> providers out of your markets, but you've been taking advantage of the
> parts of the bill that benefit you.  I think it is high time that that
> you start taking the good with the bad and instead of sticking your
> customers with the bill for your screw-ups, you figure out how to do a
> better and more efficient job, just like you promised when you lobbied
> for the telecom reform act.
> </Diatribe>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Jerry Whelan -- Information Superman                         jerryw@convex.com


Great Job Jerry!!! You have hit the proverbial nail on its proverbial
head. The local telcos have screwed up AGAIN and want us, the unwashed
masses, to pay for their mistake. In '94 I nearly had to beg SWB to
install a couple of ISDN lines. Then they couldn't install them for over
four months. The reason? In SWB omnipotent opinion ISDN was a waste of
time, money, and resources. As long as they could soak business for
lease line circuits, all was well.

But now that the unwashed masses have learned how to play by the rules
that the baby bells have set, the rules must change. It's not fair that
the telcos have to live with thier own rules. As the old adage states
"When you are losing at the game of life, just change the rules."

I'll make a deal with you SWB. You and the other telcos, along with the
FCC, allow me free choice as to my local carrier. So I can pick GTE,
SWB, ATT, MCI, TCG, or whoever else comes into the market. Then, and
only then, will I agree to allow you to change your billing rules
whenever you want. This way when you screw up again, I will have the
ability to leave you in wallowing in your own self pity. 

I'll wager that if you had to face real compitition the question of
raising your rates or per minute billing would never surface again. You
would have to live, compete, and do business just like the rest of us.

Scary, isn't it?

Just another abused and frustrated telco user
Troy Sprenger