🚀 go-pugleaf

Kurt Glaesemann (kurtg@iastate.edu) wrote:
: >I am writing you this to inform you of a very important matter
: >currently under review by the FCC. Your local telephone company has
: >filed a proposal with the FCC to impose per minute charges for your
: >internet service. They contend that your usage has or will hinder the
: >operation of the telephone network.
: 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.  

You don't work for the RBOC's do you?

Okay, let me see here. I pay for 20 lines to take incomming calls at
business rates. My customers all get second lines to have uninterupted
access to my ISP. I have to pay thousands to a T1 or T3 line to handle the
feed. 

You're right, these people are all abusing the RBOC's who thay have no
choice of paying if they want to be in business. It's not like there is
competition. I live in GTE's service area, but I have to pay extra to get
a phone listed in and use the service of PacBell. Oh yes. The GTE Central
Office is over twice as far as the PacBell CO from my home. Competition?
Yeah, right!

: Cellular
: providers, long-distance providers and other companies that link into the
: phone service have to pay similar fees. 

But will they have to if the RBOC starts to invade their market space?
Think about it. If so, then the RBOC's are making out like bandits. They
pass the cost on for access when I install services and on a monthly bill,
and then pass it along a second time on T&D charges. 

: It's good economics:  make the cost
: of doing something reflect the actual cost of doing it.  It's not fair to
: make non-websurfers subsidize heavily the surfers.

The RBOC's could have done what was done in most of Europe and replaced
their switching equipment with ISDN and full digital networks, but they
choose not to. Now the system that they didn't upgrade is being tasked to
do more. Too bad they have smoking guns all over the place that say that
they knew these days were coming and still choose to do nothing about it.

: As for this being a
: sleazy trick on the part of the phone company, the FCC granted internet
: service providers a temporary blocking of these fees back in the 80's to
: encourage the growth of the internet and such, no no such subsidy is needed,
: so it should be stopped.  

Read the actual text. The FCC knows that the RBOC's are proposing
something that will eliminate competition from the marketplace. Their
papers on the net make that clear. In fact, the papers posted show that
the FCC position is that they would prefer to NOT do this. They are
looking for reasons from the public. That's why they created the e-mail
address. 

The FCC shouldn't be flamed, they should be congratulated for taking the
stand against the RBOCs. They want to know what we think, we think they
are making the right decisions to not follow the RBOC's recomendations.
Why? Becuase they should be making money off the sale of the access lines
to everyone. Because they are themselves attempting to compete in the ISP
marketplace, and this would give them and unfair advantage. Because they
have yet to allow any cometition in the marketplace that they are in, and
unless I can pick a RBOC based on competitive services and terms, then
they are not playing by the new rules of the telcom act, and they are
still little monopolies. 

The RBOCs could have fixed the systems. They didn't because they wanted to
grab the airwaves, and to buy each other up. Well, now they need money to
rebuild the internal structure that they choose to really ignore for the
last 15 years. They took all my money for 15 years on a known data line
(which I paid extra for). Now they want to charge me for local calls. The
fact that they squandered away billions of dollars in profits and aren't
nimble enough to compete is really their problem, and if they go out of
business I'm sure the area won't be wasting away waiting for a phone
service to come in.

RBOCs raped us for services for years and then didn't use the money to
upgrade lines or switching. They used it to try to buy their way into new
markets and expand. They forgot about the people who paid every month. Now
they are getting screwed by their own shortsightedness. Good! I hope they
start to go out of business, and maybe we will see companies come in that
offer real service and value for the prices we pay. Maybe we will even see
consumer choices! What a concept. Competition. What will they think of
next!

jmi