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From: wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil (Will Martin)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: More on BBSs and Phone Rates
Message-ID: <16107@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 15 Jan 91 16:59:21 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 42, Message 5 of 6


I've just caught up with the Digests covering this topic, and hope to
get my comments in before the cutoff; I broke my wrist a while back so
am typing everything one-fingered, which slows down my
response/contribution capability... :-)

I can understand the telco's point of view about charging BBS lines
more in flat-rate localities (I may not agree, but I can understand
it...).  But, in *measured service* localities, let me take an extreme
opposing view: BBS dial-in lines (and Dial-A-Joke, Time&Temp, etc.
lines, too) should be FREE.

After all, in measured service, the telco makes its money off the
calls other people make TO these lines.  It is in the telco's interest
that there be as many of these dial-in-only lines as possible, because
their existence will generate revenue from the people calling them.
The operators of these services (BBSs, Dial-A-Whatever, etc.) have
expenses in operating and maintaining the equipment; the telco should
do its part by giving them free incoming-only lines.  (It would be
fine if the lines were set up so that outgoing calls were impossible;
perhaps a certain level or number of incoming calls should be required
to be maintained so that the telco continues to get adequate income
off the lines to justify providing them, too.)

Note that the whole business <-> residential distinction becomes moot
in this case. Any incoming-only line that generates sufficient income
to the telco from the measured service of the calls coming into it
should be free to the operator of the service at that number. It
doesn't matter if this is the perpetually-busy consumer-assistance-
and-info line at the Better Business Bureau, incoming lines to Kinky's
Adult BBS, the help desk at Sleazoid Software, Inc., or whatever; all
of them create telco income in a measured-service world.

Myself, I like flat rate unmeasured service, having a wife at home who
is perpetually on the phone, so I don't particularly desire this
scenario to come into being here and now. For those of you who are
already in measured-service areas (and who don't have the "untimed"
measured service described by one contributor), this sounds like
something to be lobbied for. Right now, your telcos not only get the
income from the measured service, but they also charge the people who
operate the facilities that create the calls which generate that
income! They're grabbing from both sides. It would seem more
reasonable for them to get income from one side only.

Y'know, one of the problems in these legal proceedings, like PUC
hearings about a telco increasing the line charges for BBSs, is that
one side wants a change (the telco) while the other side just wants to
keep the status quo (the BBSers). That means one side is attacking
while the other is just defending. Since the best defense is a good
attack, that puts the latter group at a disadvantage. Any compromise
means they *have* to lose something.  Why not respond to the attack
with a counterstrike, taking the above viewpoint? In response to their
wanting to *raise* your rates, don't just ask that they remain
unchanged, but instead demand they be eliminated entirely! That way,
the status quo could be a settlement out of court...

Just some orthogonal thinking ...


Will