Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!killer!vector!telecom-gateway From: les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Divestiture was not a mistake Message-ID: Date: 4 Apr 89 22:31:17 GMT Sender: news@vector.UUCP Reply-To: Leslie Mikesell Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix Lines: 17 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 124, message 5 of 7 In article eli@ursa-major.spdcc.com (Steve Elias) writes: >I think it is mistaken to blame divestiture for these problems. [...] >I don't think the answer is to allow any one company to monopolize >long distance service. If the pay phones were required to display >or speak the rates being applied, the problem would be solved by the >free market. The voice equipment necessary for such a task shouldn't >be too much -- especially for companies which charge megabucks per minute! The solution is actually much simpler than voice equipment. The services should be required to connect through the lowest priced LD service unless otherwise directed (by dialing the access code) by the caller. Any machine capable of billing a call can easily find the cheapest rate. Then they could only gouge you for local services. Les Mikesell