Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Wed, 5 Jun 91 15:23:29 EST From: andrewf@syacus.acus.oz Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Are Telco Profits Too Large? Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest 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 425, Message 1 of 15 Lines: 26 0004322955@mcimail.com (Guy J. Sherr) writes: > You may wish to remind some of us that English notation given as a > billion is actually a number with 12 zeroes, and not 9. 3000 billion > pounds sterling would therefore be 3,000,000,000,000,000 pounds > sterling written out, and I believe worth approximately 4.5 > quadrillion US dollars (apologies to those following the exchange > rate). This number seems to be inaccurate. It is more than 50 years > of the United States's GNP. I suspect the situation regarding millions is the same in the U.K. as it is here. Financial institutions and others reporting financial results usually (incorrectly) use the US convention rather than the English one. I presume this is to make their results sound more impressive. Nevertheless, the original posting poses an interesting question: How can companies that make large profits, be fullfilling their community service obligations, which should include pricing their calls as cheaply as possible. The usual answer is that large profits are needed to finance new equipment. Of course, most residential subscribers don't give a hang about new technology so long as reliability compares favourably with price.