Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 30 Apr 91 21:28:20 GMT From: "Ralph W. Hyre" Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Decreasing Costs of Transmission Reply-To: "Ralph W. Hyre" Message-ID: Organization: AT&T OSS Development, Cincinnati Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu 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 320, Message 4 of 11 Lines: 34 In article John Higdon writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 306, Message 2 of 6 > "James Borynec" writes: >> Will North America move to a wide area extended flat rate billing zone? > [No] ... executive board is going to ... "give it all back" > when the promised-land technology comes to pass. > ... the benefits cost-wise are for the service providers, not for the > customers. Well why can't consumers band together, form a non-profit organization, and build their own phone network to provide service at cost? Amateur radio operators do this already. Subscriber equipment costs more than telephones, but you get free bandwidth. One could use microsatellites and radio links to provide enough capacity to get a network up to a critical mass of subscribers cheaply, then you could run fiber as your network grows to dwarf all others :-) Even with the expense of acquiring rights-of-way could be mitigated by asking for 'donations' from member/subscribers. - Ralph W. Hyre, Jr. Internet: rhyre@attmail.com Amateur Radio: N3FGW UUCP: attmail!cinpmx!rhyre Snail Mail: 45150-0085 [ZIP code] or: att!cinoss1!rhyre Phone: +1 513 629 7288