🚀 go-pugleaf

On 14 Apr 1996 17:22:31 GMT, kammeyer@flowbee.interaccess.com (David
Kammeyer) wrote:

>jhines@mcs.net wrote:
>
>: This is not about freedom of speech, its about MONEY.  Currently internet
>: providers take advantage of a provision in the law, which exempts them from
>: paying the access fees which IXC (Long Distance) companies pay.
>
>Wrong.  They may not pay the same access fees that LD providers pay, but
>they do pay another "access fee", namely, their phone lines.  Essentally,
>their phone lines are the tranit from the phone network to the ISP's
>network.  Back in the early days before dial 1+ service, this is exactly
>what companies like MCI did.  There is nothing illegal about what ISPs
>are doing.  Furthermore, the suit alledges that the companies that make
>Internet Phone software are provding phone service.  This is ridiculous --
>that's like claiming that the company that provided your phone is your
>long distance carrier.
 I do think this is about money and use of  the net.  I have been
thinking for a long time that once voice use of the net increased,
then things might get clogged up.

The net, like anything else, has inherent limitations.  There is only
a certain amount of data that its can handle in its present form.
While I do not care for the probable arguments of the long distance
carriers, I think that market forces will very soon come into play and
the price for using the net will go up.

I will add that one key is when we can call anywhere from any net
account.  I am not up on whether this is currently possible, but if
and when it can be done then there will essentially be no reason to
use any long distance carrier for expensive calls and it will be seen
that the larger issue really is just simply how much is one charged
for transmission of data of any sort.

The so--called Internet is merely one way to exchange data.  It has
blasted into play largely because its data capacities went so unused
for so long.  Now if its capacities are to be tested this is the sort
of issue that was going to inevitably arise.   when it became possible
to fax anywhere then I felt the next step was calling anywhere and
then the next step was, in effect, using my provider as a long
distance carrier.  Once this becomes possible, I see this particular
net getting clogged up real fast or someone decides that this
particular net is only for non-voice data.  But I don't see how that
can be done.  Someone else pointed out that they see little way to
distinguish between voice data and other net data.  So, I guess the
clog-up will mean a rise on prices.

On the bright side, my conventional long-distance prices seem to be
going down.

Josh