Xref: utzoo comp.misc:3958 alt.bbs:174 Path: utzoo!hoptoad!uunet!peregrine!ccicpg!zardoz!conexch!turnkey!sandy From: sandy@turnkey.TCC.COM (Sanford 'Sandy' Zelkovitz) Newsgroups: comp.misc,alt.bbs Subject: Re: Houston bbs's vs SW Bell - more Summary: oh... come on now! Message-ID: <2393@turnkey.TCC.COM> Date: 28 Oct 88 10:05:32 GMT References: <4252@moray.UUCP> <1933@uokmax.UUCP> <3940@homxc.UUCP> <8992@ihlpb.ATT.COM> Distribution: usa Organization: Turnkey Computer Consultants, Costa Mesa, Ca. Lines: 70 In article <8992@ihlpb.ATT.COM>, res@ihlpb.ATT.COM (Rich Strebendt) writes: > In article <3945@homxc.UUCP>, marty@homxc.UUCP (M.B.BRILLIANT) writes: > > In article <3940@homxc.UUCP>, halle@homxc.UUCP (J.HALLE) writes: > > > < -> .... > > Not quite. The customer premise cost (wire, installation, etc.) is > really not that great (on an annualized basis) compared to the cost in > the switching offices. What you say may be true for the per-line > equipment, but is NOT true for the shared (common) equipment (such as > ringing generators). The degree to which these expensive resources can > be shared is greatly determined by how heavily they are used -- hence > more of these resources are needed per 100 customers if they are > heavily used than if they are lightly used. > Boy, this sure sounds like a sales pitch by AT&T. The first thing that you obviously forgot about is the excessive amount of revenue you are receiving from all the long distance phone calls that are being made. Not only do users of BBSs make these long distance calls on PRIME time but so do the SYSOPs of the different boards to gather data for their users. I will make a deal with you, if you want to charge business rates to "non-profit" bbs systems, how about giving these non profile systems a "cut" on the revenue that you take in because of the EXCESSIVE amount of revenue being made. I think a 50-50 split would be fair! Since this is money you would never had made in the first place!!!! I'm sure that you could buy MANY ring generators etc. with your excessive profits! > > BBS's probably receive a lot of local no-charge calls, but they should > > not pay commercial rates for that. The new wave of usage-sensitive > > pricing will ultimately make the callers pay even for those local > > calls, so if the BBS is charged for them the local company will be paid > > twice. And BBS's don't make a lot of local calls. > > The same sort of thing might be said of radio stations, particularly > talk-show stations. Anyone know what such stations pay for the special > switching offices they use? > As we all know, radio stations have paid commercials! We are talking about NON-COMMERCIAL operations. > > Other than that, commercial lines might be charged more than > > residential lines based on presumed ability to pay. That might be > > arguable but should not be argued in this newsgroup. At any rate, no > > such presumption applies to a BBS run for fun. > > Actually, what I am seeing in this discussion is a special interest > group that has been getting a bargain in telephone rates screaming when > they were asked to pay part of the REAL cost of their special grade of > service. > > Rich Strebendt > ihlpb!res The only real bargin that is being made is by AT&T! If BBSs were to be a "thing of the past", your income would decrease considerably. If you would like, I would LOVE to send you one of my daily logs. You will find that over 80% of my callers call long distance. Not only do they call long distance but a majority call during the prime time hours. Instead of charging even the "basic" home rate to BBS sysops, what you really should do is just give them the line for free! Just think, more lines, more long distance phone calls, more revenue! Sanford Zelkovitz XBBS 714-898-8634 P.S. And I am proud to say that I am serviced not by Bell but General Telephone. I was having problems with a little noise and General IMMEDIATELY fixed it for me. At least they appreciate hobbiests like myself.