Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!bu.edu!telecom-request From: hpubvwa!ssc!Tad.Cook@beaver.cs.washington.edu Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Measured Local Service Message-ID: <69300@bu.edu.bu.edu> Date: 23 Nov 90 05:53:46 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 49 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 844, Message 3 of 5 In article <68911@bu.edu.bu.edu>, john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > "Sander J. Rabinowitz" writes: > > "As a free service to you, we have kept track of the number of local > > calls you've made this month so you can see if you save money with our > > measured service. This month, you made -0- local calls--therefore, > > you would have saved $3.44 this month had you used our other plan." > This is very scary and you should be concerned. Most telcos have > discovered that PUCs and equivalents are most reluctant to allow the > summary discontinuance of unmeasured residence service, so they use a > more sophisticated approach these days. > > Is this something for the local public service commission to look at? > > It seems like a harmless computer glitch, but I can't shake the > > feeling that something fishy is going on here. > You betcha. You may be headed down the slippery slope of measured-only > service. Watch out! John Higdon said that the telco could get enough folks to switch their residential service to declare that the unlimited calling option was no longer in the public interest. I think it could happen a little differently. In most places where there is a measured service option, it is priced so that most residential customers would pay less by switching over to measured service without ever changing their calling patterns. So if the telco starts pushing measured service to these low usage customers and a bunch of them switched, suddenly they are getting less revenue for the same service, which gives them the right to go to the PUC and ask for a rate increase for the unlimited calling customers. Once this happens, there could be a snowball effect, where the telco gets more and more customers to switch, based upon higher and higher rates for unlimited calling. This further erodes the rate base, causing a situation where eventually nearly everyone except truly high usage residential customers are on measured service. So the telco gets a de-facto mandatory measured service, without any change in the tariff. Tad Cook Seattle, WA Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA Phone: 206/527-4089 MCI Mail: 3288544 Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW USENET:...uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!ssc!tad or, tad@ssc.UUCP