Xref: utzoo comp.misc:3924 alt.bbs:151
Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!apple!rutgers!att!whuts!homxb!homxc!halle
From: halle@homxc.UUCP (J.HALLE)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,alt.bbs
Subject: Re: Houston bbs's vs SW Bell - more
Message-ID: <3940@homxc.UUCP>
Date: 26 Oct 88 13:10:37 GMT
References: <4252@moray.UUCP> <1933@uokmax.UUCP>
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel
Lines: 56

In article <1933@uokmax.UUCP>, russ@uokmax.UUCP (Russ "Random" Smith) writes:
> ->       CAN SOUTHWESTERN BELL TRULY JUSTIFY THIS RATE HIKE?
< ->                                by
> ->                    Thomas J.L. Bronsberg-Adas
< ->
> ->     Recently, Southwestern Bell began raising the telephone rates 
< ->of computer bulletin board systems (BBSs).  The rates are being 
> ->raised from $13.35 (the residential rate) to $32.85 (the 
< ->commercial/business rate).  This increase is an increase of over 
> ->240%!  I feel (as do most computer users) that this increase in 
< ->not warranted, nor justified. 
> ->
< Something similar to this happened in either '82 or '83 in the Oklahoma
> City area.  A young (well, at the time) fellow named Robert Braver built up
< a suit against Bell.  Bell eventually gave up (hurrah for the good guys!)
> 
< Hope this one turns out the same way.

And I hope it does not.  SWBell is really only doing what it must.  Why do you
think they charge more for "commercial" lines than residential?  Not because
of ability to pay, but because those lines cost more to provide than
residential lines.  The cost of providing a line is significantly affected by
the amount of use the line gets, both incoming and outgoing.  Business line
usage is typically several times more than residential lines (based on
minutes of use during the peak hour, e.g.).  Of course there are exceptions
here and there, but by and large the business lines are much more costly to
the phone company.  As far as pattern of use, BBSs are much closer to business
use than to residential use.

Let me offer an alternative.  How about if all lines are charged based on the
amount of time the line is busy, i.e. you get billed during incoming and
outgoing calls, but not when the phone is on hook.  How would you feel then?
Now residential rates will probably not be affected much, most business lines
would stay the same or drop slightly, and BBS lines would skyrocket.  Also,
any lines used at home with a modem would probably go up.  Is that really what
you want?  That's the way you should be charged for the lines.

Of course you could let the BBSs be charged residential rates, but then ALL
residential rates would have to be raised.  (The phone company is not a
government agency; it too has to make a profit.  And it is not allowed to make
a very big one.)  What, don't raise residential rates?  Then raise business
rates.  But then the businesses raise their prices, costing you more, and they
find a cheaper way to have phone service by bypassing the phone company.  Now
the phone company has a smaller base, so all rates again go up, only now
more so.

I could go on, but I've made my point.  I see nothing unfair about what the
phone company is trying to do, and in fact they are giving the BBSs a break
by not doing what they really ought to do if they were able.

(Side issue.  The reporter who wrote the original article cannot be called a
reporter in any real sense of the word.  He editorialized unmercifully, and
made a number of unfounded and totally off-the-wall insinuations.  Yellow
journalism at its best.)

J. C. Halle