Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mit-eddie!killer!vector!nobody
From: judy@moray.UUCP (Judy Scheltema)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Houston vs SW Bell
Message-ID: <622@vector.UUCP>
Date: 27 Oct 88 16:16:06 GMT
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Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp


COMPUTER 'BULLETIN' OPERATORS SAY PHONE HIKE WILL CLOSE THEM

HOUSTON CHRONICLE  OCTOBER 12, 1988    BY RAD SALLEE

Some operators of computer "bulletin boards" here, most of whom 
offer their services for free, say a recent phone company decision 
to charge them business rates, instead of the residential ones 
they've paid since 1985, will force many boards to shut down.

Most bulletin board operators, or sysops (system operators), are 
computer hobbyists who offer message exchanges along with helpful 
advice and free software to members, who use their computers to 
"talk" over the phone with the sysop's computer.

Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. decided to charge bulletin board 
operators in Texas the business rate of $32.85 a month instead of 
the $13.35 residential rate after the operator of a for-profit 
board, who paid the higher rates, complained to the state Public 
Utility Commission that boards paying residential rates were 
unfair competition.

Spokesman Ken Brasel said Bell is simply rectifying its own 
error.  "We shouldn't have connected these (bulletin boards) at 
the residential rate to begin with", he said.

"When the lines are used to provide a service to others, it is 
business.  Whether for profit or not isn't germane."

Brasel noted that churches, government charities and other 
nonprofit organizations also pay the business rates.

Attorney Reginald Hirsch, who runs a board called Ye Old Bailey, 
says business rates for the above types of user are specified in 
state regulations, which do not mention bulletin boards.

Also, Hirsch says, bulletin board operations and users should have 
been allowed to file comments with the PUC before the change took 
effect.

Bell is also notifying users of "auto-patch" devices that they 
must pay business rates.

These users typically buy an electronic device called a repeater 
that provides a link (or "patch") between two-way radios in 
vehicles and the phone network.

Brasel said Bell is not charging commercial rates to persons who 
simply use a computer to contact other computers by phone or to 
amateur "ham" radio operators who patch radio messages to their 
home phone - so long as these calls do not go to outsiders who 
would not normally use the phone.
  
Brasel said he doubts that business rates would be charged to ham 
radio operators who patch long-distance radio callers through to 
their loved ones during disasters such as hurricanes or 
earthquakes.

Brasel said Bell's March 15, 1985, tariff, the PUC document that 
governs what Bell can charge, says business rates apply "at 
residences when the customer has no regular business telephone, 
and the use of the (phone) service can be construed as more of a 
business than a residence nature."

Some local sysops are writing protest letters to Bell and the PUC 
and are querying fellow operators in other states about phone 
company policies there.  Hirsch says sysops in New York and 
Wisconsin told him they are charged residential rates.

Interest persons will meet at noon October 27 in Hirsch's office, 
1980 Post Oak Blvd., Suite 1780, to plan strategy against the 
change.

He estimates Houston may have 800 to 1,000 bulletin boards, with 
perhaps 10 percent to 15 percent charging a fee and fewer than 5 
percent being profitable.

Several local operators said that if all boards must pay the 
higher rates, they will have to charge membership fees and start 
keeping records, and some will decide it is just too much trouble.

Hirsch estimates he would lose 75 percent to 80 percent of his 
board's users if forced to cover costs with a fee.  Greg Joplin, a 
field service engineer who runs a Commodore 64 board called The 
Hip Pocket as a hobby, says he would probably lose 90 percent of 
his.

Joplin says most board users are probably under 18 and could not 
afford to belong to may fee charging boards.
 

--
Judy Scheltema                |                     uunet!nuchat!moray!judy
Houston, Texas                |                 bellcore!texbell!moray!judy