Re: Ma Bell

[dastar@crl.com (Sam Ismail)]

Sheldon Simms (sheldon@atlcom.net) wrote:
: In article <5elcij$nud$1@news.calweb.com>, markhass@calweb.com wrote:


: In any case, the proposal is not for the RBOCs (local phone companies)
: to charge you or I by the minute. The proposal is to reclassify ISPs
: so that *they* can be charged by the minute for incoming calls. Granted
: that would most likely result in  per-minute charges on ISP users, levied
: by the ISPs themselves.

The ISPs would most definitely pass on the charge, which goes to show that
government regulation increases costs, rather than controlling it.

: Face it. Flat rate phone service is not a right. It is thought to be
: a good thing by the FCC, but it is not a right. I don't want to pay
: by the minute for phone calls but I also don't want to live in a
: country where the government owns the phone company.

If it were more than a year ago I'd probably say something about local
monopoly and make some point, but now that there is "competition" (not
quire yet but it will arrive someday) people will simply choose the
phone service that best services their internet needs.  I envision that
you will have two phone lines in your house, 1 for regular phone use in
which you probably stick to a typical local exchange company for your
voice phone service and then your 2nd line would be subscribed to a phone
service that charges you cheap rates based on modem type usage.  I'm
sure some enterprising company will come up with such a service that
will keep internet access cheap.
-- 

Sam
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