Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!lll-winken!telecom-request From: ryan@cs.umb.edu (Daniel R. Guilderson) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Decreasing Costs of Transmission Message-ID: Date: 1 May 91 16:42:36 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 26 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 326, Message 4 of 9 > 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. Forming a non-profit phone network is pure fantasy. I fantasize about it all the time. The more I fantasize the more I realize it's just that. There's absolutely no precedent for it. I can think of a lot of successful non-profit organizations but nothing on the scale of AT&T, MCI or Sprint. I have another idea. Let's deregulate the telecommunications industry and merge it with the rest of the communications industry. We'll throw the phone companies, the cable companies, the LAN/WAN companies and anyone else who wants a peice of the action into a battle royal. The competition will be so vicious that prices will have to fall. Eventually there would be a shakeout and we would be left with a few very lean and mean competitive communications companies. Any new technologies would then be offered quickly as a competitive advantage. Of course the RBOCS and the long distance carriers would fight this idea tooth and nail. Daniel Guilderson ryan@cs.umb.edu UMass Boston, Harbor Campus, Dorchester, MA USA