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From: wright@ais.org (Carl Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: More on BBSs and Phone Rates
Message-ID: <16256@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 21 Jan 91 05:25:52 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 44, Message 3 of 11


In the article, (Norman Yarvin) writes:

>It seems to me that there are two ways of dealing with this.  One is
>to continue the endless proliferation of rules, special cases, and
>additional considerations.  The other is to charge by cost ... 

[good stuff removed]

>We just had a session of griping about how complex the world is
>becoming.  In the telecommunications world, this is largely a function
>of the complexity of the policies and regulations governing it.  Those
>who gripe about complexity would do well to attack this obvious
>target.

IMHO this problem will not be solved quickly, but that an unexpected
path may lead us to a solution. In computer systems, there is a "law"
that computer systems grow in comlexity until they are abandoned or
rewritten.  [Gilb's Fourth Law]

The easiest way to simplify the system may be to make it so complex
that its users reject it and abandon or rewrite. I'd bet on this route
before I'd try to convince the carriers and regulatory commisions to
rewrite the way they do their "business".

They are already susceptible to the "incrementalism" practiced in the
creation of law where a law is proposed and accepted to apply only to
an extreme portion of the population, then is extended gradually to
more and more of the population,i.e. the Federal Income tax or the
current inch-by-inch battling you witness over abortions.
 
We can propose that nonprofit organizations, since they serve the
public good, should be provided lower telephone rates. Then during a
period of public sympathy for the nonprofits we urge the further
reduction of their rates, maybe to zero. Since they have so much lower
rates there should also be consideration given to less public agents
that serve the public through BBS, recorded message services, and
others. Mind you not as much as the real nonprofits, but they should
not have to pay as much as big corporations which are only interested
in their own profits. Really the corporations should be paying a
greater portion of the costs of communications since they benefit so
greatly from the telephone system. I think you probably have gotten
the idea by now.


Carl Wright                     | Lynn-Arthur Associates, Inc.
Internet: wright@ais.org        | 2350 Green Rd., #160
Voice: 1 313 995 5590 EST       | Ann Arbor, MI 48105