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From: shaprkg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Bob Shapiro)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: Long Distance
Message-ID: <2565@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Jan-86 17:30:41 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.2565
Posted: Thu Jan  9 17:30:41 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Jan-86 07:49:01 EST
References: <82@druhi.UUCP> <729@ihopb.UUCP>
Reply-To: shaprkg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Bob Shapiro)
Organization: System Development Corporation R&D, Santa Monica
Lines: 71

In article <729@ihopb.UUCP> suem@ihopb.UUCP (Sue McKinnell) writes:
>>                              The $1.00/month fee
>>  paid to the telephone company defrays what they pay to
>>  AT&T for connection to the long distance network.  It is
>>  a local telephone company's charge to you, but the rest
>>  of the long distance bill goes to the another company.
>
>>  When I think of the present ripoffs like $1.27/m for an unlisted
>>  number to prevent them from publishing what I consider no one
>>  elses business but my own and $1.00/m for long distance services
>>  that I don't use and then add the coming rate increases for my
>>  basic service and for *forced* charity I begin to wonder if I
>>  really need a telephone.
>
>Please, please, please don't perpetuate these misconceptions!!!
>The $1.00 "access" fee charged is *not* (repeat *NOT*) a fee for
>the local phone companies to connect to the long distance network.
>It has arisen because in the past long distance users subsidized the
>cost of supplying local loops (the actual cable from the local office
>to you house).  This was a government-sanctioned policy.  The current
>policy is to gradually transfer more of the cost of supplying local
>telephone service to the user by charging the "access" charge.  So,
>the extra charge you are so upset about and trying to avoid by saying
>you don't use long distance is really a charge for having a telephone
>line connected *locally*.
>Sue McKinnell   iihnp4!ihopb!suem
>--
>
>Sue McKinnell
>...!ihnp4!ihopb!suem
>IH 6N226  x5313

   As much as I despise the phone company, I would like to make one point.
I believe that the long distance access permits others to make calls to you
as well as you making calls to others. Thus you might be using the access
even though you aren't paying for the call. That also holds true for 800
numbers which are long distance calls free to the caller.

   On the other hand nothing gripes me more than the message unit charges
within a local area.  I have a General Telephone phone in one part of LA.
Literally across the street from me is a Pacific Telephone exchange. The
people in the Pacific Telephone exchange can call another General Telephone
exchange for free, and I must pay 23 cents for the first minute and 14 cents
for each extra minute to call that same General Telephone exchange.  My
company gets a bill from General Telephone which is several feet tall.  I
suspect that if the phone companies were to eliminate the message unit
charges they might be ahead of the game after they eliminate all of their
paper factories and computers which are currently necessary to monitor and
bill it.

   There is also talk now of the phone companies eliminating the unlimited
calls for private residences (businesses pay for every call in our area
today). This might more fairly cause the people who use the phone the most to
pay their fair share (assuming that the basic rates were also reduced) but it
begs the following questions:

   1. There is no accounting information for the user to determine if the
phone company makes a mistake.  All the business receives today is a
statement as to how many minutes/units are used but not which calls were
made to generate those units.  I refuse to assume that the phone company
never makes mistakes any more than I do that the bank never makes an error
on my checking account. On the other hand I am forced to trust the gas,
water, and electric companies.

   2. Some people use their phones almost exclusively as an input device.
(airline res lines for example) They pay only the basic charge for the phone
but keep their line busy literally 24 hours a day.  This seems a bit unfair
to me, but I have yet to think of any fairer way to handle it.


                             Bob Shapiro