Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Wed, 8 May 91 01:20:19 -0700 From: Steve Forrette Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: How is the Cost of Features Calculated? Message-ID: Organization: University of California, Berkeley 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 347, Message 7 of 10 Lines: 33 > The price is determined by what people are willing to pay. In long > distance service, AT&T provides a benchmark. Someone else who wants > to persuade you to buy their service and not AT&T's has to do one of > the following: > 1. Convince you their service is better than AT&T's and worth > a higher price than AT&T charges. > 2. Convince you that they will give you comparable phone service > to what you have been getting from AT&T for a comparable price > and they will be nicer to you than AT&T is. > 3. Convince you that you will be happy with their lower quality > phone service because it costs so much less. I think that one pricing technique has been left out: 4. Set your price at two to three times AT&T's rate, and illegally program your COCOT or Hotel PBX so that the caller cannot reach AT&T. Steve Forrette, forrette@cory.berkeley.edu [Moderator's Note: But hopefully soon, the programming of public systems so that AT&T cannot be reached will be treated as a vey serious offense and dealt with accordingly. I suspect AT&T is staying away from 800 access and insisting on equal availability via 10288 for very good reason. I think it is part of a game plan to force the hand of the sleaze purveyors, to make them comply. PAT]