Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!sharkey!atanasoff!jwright From: jwright@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu (Jim Wright) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems Subject: Re: FYI -- PC-P Price "Increase" Message-ID: <574@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu> Date: 1 Jan 89 09:57:23 GMT References: <261@lakesys.UUCP> <7342@chinet.chi.il.us> Reply-To: jwright@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu (Jim Wright) Organization: Iowa State U. Computer Science Department, Ames, IA Lines: 32 In article <7342@chinet.chi.il.us> ptownson@chinet.chi.il.us (Patrick Townson) writes: >Still, even with the price increase -- even a 100 percent increase caused by >running a few hours over the allotment -- PCP is the best bargain in town >for long distance data connections. The cheapest rates you can get on direct >dial via the phone network is $7.55 per hour late at night on Reach Out >America. 12.5 cents per minute, compared to less than a cent per minute on >PCP within the thirty hour time frame. > >I will keep it and try hard to stay within the 30 hour allowance, and in >no case run more than one or two hours per month over the allotment. You might try checking some of the messages on the Net Exchange. Telenet has no plans for providing you with information on your monthly usage. Except of course when you receive your bill on the 15th of the next month. So unless you are incredibly disciplined, you'll be running blind. Most of the joy of the old PCP was that you could call across the country and leave messages without having a stopwatch mounted on your terminal. Your analysis of charges is way out of line. What other service will charge you for busy signals? They haven't made it clear whether they will charge for all the time you're connected to the indial, or just for the the time connected to an outdial city. But you can be sure that you WILL BE CHARGED for busy signals while trying to connect. Also, don't forget that on PCP you're limited to 1200bps (unless you're fortunate enough to live in an area blessed with a 2400bps outdial). Plus the little matter of just how well itemized the monthly bill will be. I fear it will simply have one line on it: "Please pay $348.26 for February usage". Using it for less than 34.5 hours in a month results in a 100% price increase. OUTRAGEOUS. I'm glad I don't own stock in this company. I wonder if they will even exist 12 months from now. The bad feelings from this can't help but spill over to their other ventures.