Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!ucsd!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Nynex Gateway Bites the Dust Message-ID: Date: 16 Feb 91 08:31:00 GMT Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 35 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 119, Message 3 of 11 adamg@world.std.com (Adam M Gaffin) writes: > Greene is currently re-evaluating his ban. > [...] > At least two other regional phone companies have abandoned > similar services after heavy losses over the past 18 months. I hope Judge Greene thinks long and hard about lifting his proscription on information providing. Why did these regionals have heavy losses when offering information services? I suspect it is because they used the time-honored monopoly tradition of doing THEIR way with no regard to that nasty gremlin -- competition. It does not take a crystal ball to predict what would happen if telcos were allowed to freely participate in on-line information providing. The first order of business would be to get rid of all those interlopers who have the gall to provide FREE on-line services: the BBS operators. We have already seen some of the tactics such as regrading service to "business" on the one hand to trumping up charges and having operators arrested Craig Neidorf-style on the other. Then to kill off the succesful commercial services, such as Compuserve, the various PUCs would be pressured into allowing surcharges and other bogosity to price them out of the market place. Hell, a telco could get the PUC to authorize escalating local charges for all subscribers, but make calls to the telco info line "free" using a special prefix. What I am trying to say here is that telcos should never, but NEVER, be allowed to compete in an industry that depends on telephone service. To do so would put all of the competing players on the endangered species list. I am rooting for the Judge to hold his original ground on this one. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !