Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: "Fred R. Goldstein" Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: FCC & Modem charges Message-ID: <2412@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 26 Dec 89 15:39:32 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Lines: 48 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 594, message 7 of 7 In article <2403@accuvax.nwu.edu>, levitt@zorro9.fidonet.org (Ken Levitt) writes... >This article is reposted from Fidonet and may be of interest to >Telecom readers. > From: Jack Lohman > To: All > Subj: FCC PROBLEMS >MOBILIZE! >========= >Now, they are at it again. A new regulation that the FCC is quietly >working on will directly affect you as the user of a computer and >modem. The FCC proposes that users of modems should pay extra charges >for use of the public telephone network which carry their data. In >addition, computer network services such as CompuServ, Tymnet, & >Telenet would also be charged as much as $6.00 per hour per user for >use of the public telephone network. ... Cripes. This again. It's becoming the new Chain Letter. It popped up in comp.unix.wizards last month and I think I had it squashed there, but alas, this moderated group has allowed it to surface. Here's the poop. When the new FCC chair Alf Sykes was being confirmed, he was grilled on this topic by Congressman Markey, who chairs the House subcommittee that oversees the FCC. Sykes was made to swear on a stack of bibles, so to speak, that this "enhanced service provider" (not modem, btw, though the two often overlap) surcharge was dead. Markey made clear that a congressional LAW preventing it was being put on the back burner only out of courtesy to Sykes. If Sykes hadn't been so docile, the law would have been passed; Congress doesn't like this crap any more than we do! And Markey does have power over Sykes to hit him where it hurts in case he is lying: His subcommittee oversees the FCC's budget and appropriations. In government, that's everything. I do have a copy of the appropriate Congressional Record article (Nov. 6, 1989) quoting Markey on this, and Markey's press release on the subject. So I'm not rumormongering. Someone on Fidonet is. Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice: +1 508 486 7388