Re: Ma Bell back at it.

[sheldon@atlcom.net (Sheldon Simms)]

In article <5e2ibi$iu7$1@news.calweb.com>, markhass@calweb.com wrote:

> seems the price of liberity is eternal vigalince. There was a report on
the news
> on the news last night that mother bell wants to sell us what we
> already own, The use of our phones and internet time. She has tried 
> this before and was beatten back by the populace. We need to gather 
> again and fight for our freedom, or it'll be taken away.

First off, "liberty" and "flat-rate phone connections" are not the same thing.
We do not "own" the use of the phone network. There is no fundamental right to
telephone access at a flat rate, or at any rate for that matter. Use of
telephones
is a service provided by a company. We pay the company for the use of the phone
network. It is not a matter of "freedom" or "liberty",

Having said that, It is true that local phone companies wish to treat ISPs like
long distance carriers, which means that local phone companies want to charge
ISPs by the minute for calls that ISPs receive, which means that ISPs would be
forced to charge users by the minute. I don't like this idea, any more than
you, but you shouldn't go throwing around terms like "liberty" and "freedom"
when what you're really talking about is a commercial contract between private
companies.

http://www.fcc.gov/isp.html has a description of the proposal by local phone
companies to charge ISPs by the minute. That page also notes that the FCC is
opposed to the proposal. Unfortunately today (2/14/97) was the final
deadline for
public comment, so it's too late to make formal comments, but I think you
can still
email informal comments to the fcc about the proposal.

-- 
W. Sheldon Simms III   |   2000 is *still* the 20th century
sheldon@atlcom.net     |