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From: "John R. Covert  31-Jul-1990 2125" <covert@covert.enet.dec.com>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: What Rate Applies for Phone Used as an Intercom?
Message-ID: <10282@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 1 Aug 90 01:24:54 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 532, Message 10 of 10


 From:  Greg Monti
 
Rich Zellich <zellich@stl-07sima.army.mil> writes:
 
> (2) [We] Selected measured service instead of flat rate (in Missouri, we
> have the luxury of flat rate still being the norm, and measured
> service only an experiment - the PUC is on *our* side in this state!)

No, the PUC is intelligent.  Options and choices are what the phone
system should offer consumers, not
mandatory-gold-plating-and-nothing-else.

>  - this was done based on the idea that "security" let-me-in calls
> would be relatively low in number, and normally of only a few seconds,
> rather than minutes, duration.  So far this has worked well, and we
> get monthly bills of around $2.50 for this line.
 
Oh, so you admit that there *is* a purpose to local measured service.
There really *are* people who will make less than the large number of
local calls needed to economically justify (to the intelligent
consumer) flat rate service.  But, no, once you pay $20 a month, your
local calls are "free" and it's important to get "free" things, right?

Here in Virginia: Flat Rate Service is $19.68 a month, including
Subscriber Line Charge and touch tone.  Economy is $9.20 including SLC
and TT with local calls $0.098 each.  For 25 outgoing local calls a
month (remember, busies, intercept recordings and no-answers are free
and not everybody has teenagers at home), the total using Economy is
$11.65 a month.  That's $8.03 a month cheaper than Flat Rate, a
savings of $96.36 a year.

Of *course* we should have optional measured service.


Greg Monti, Arlington, Virginia; work +1 202 822 2633