Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Wed, 5 Jun 91 10:39 PDT From: John Higdon Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Hollings and Pac*Bell Reply-To: John Higdon Message-ID: Organization: Green Hills and Cows 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 431, Message 1 of 10 Lines: 66 Pac*Bell has given those of us who care to look a glimpse of the future under the Hollings bill that permits the RBOCs to enter the world of equipment manufacturing. It is call "The Message Center", and while it is not exactly "hardware", it is a good example of how Pac*Bell intends to compete in the marketplace. The "Message Center" is a voicemail service that directly competes with voicemail service bureaus. It will answer your phone after a preset number of rings, allow you to retrieve your messages from anywhere, and will put "stutter" dial tone on your phone if there are messages waiting. What is wrong with this? First, it is priced well below most service bureaus. Using the vast capital resources available courtesy of its ratepayers, Pac*Bell can offer this service at a preditory price that is designed to murder the competition. When the field has been thinned out sufficiently, then the price can be whatever it wants. With a service bureau, it is necessary to forward calls to the special number it provides for your mail box. This results in at least local charges for the forwarded calls. Pac*Bell, being "the phone company" does not worry about this and will tout this as an advantage for its own system (no local charges). And no service bureau can provide "stutter" dial tone on your telephone if you have messages holding. Another EXCLUSIVE Pac*Bell advantage -- exploiting the fact that it controls the network. This is how Pac*Bell would play in the equipment market. "Buy our system. It has special features that no other system can provide." And it would have those features because if you bought the Pac*Bell system, special signals or what-have-you could be sent from the CO to enable the exclusive selling points--signals that would be denied ordinary vendors. In other words, Pac*Bell would use its capital from the regulated services to subsidize preditory pricing, while using its position as controller of the network to provide "exclusive" services. If you doubt this, just look at "The Message Center" and ask yourself these questions: 1. Why does "The Message Center" offer features I can't get anywhere else? 2. Why does it cost less than any other comparable service? 3. What will it cost when the competition is driven out of the market? What would you think of ConEd or PG&E selling appliances, claiming that this would advance the state of the art, benefit the handicapped, improve the quality of life, etc., etc.? Let us hope the Hollings bill dies a well-deserved death in the House. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! [Moderator's Note: But actually, in Chicago the Commonwealth Edison Company does offer 'light bulb service'. For every paid electric bill you turn in, you can have four bulbs (various wattages) for every ten dollars or so on the bill. No one complains about it, and I am not about to complain about Ameritech/Illinois Bell's voicemail service here. I think it beats out any of the others at half the price. PAT]