Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: John Higdon Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Modem Tax (Again? Again!) Message-ID: <2643@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 6 Jan 90 22:32:18 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 35 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 10, message 1 of 13 Martin J Shannon writes: > Do any of you TELECOM folks have access to ballpark figures of just > how much the "little people" (BBS users & operators) actually pay to > the various phone companies? I'd love to see some figures! I'm sure everyone's mileage varies, but I know how much I spend to support my computer habit. My home computer uses four lines, two measured and two unmeasured. This comes to about $50/month with all the tax and license. Plus, my machine is in regular contact with several systems in southern California to the tune of about $100/month. Simple arithmetic would indicate that my home computer spends $150/month with "the phone company". But in all fairness to Pac*Bell, I have to say that there have been no rumblings whatever about screwing modem users. Furthermore, sometime this year Pac*Bell and GTE California will drop all charges for touch tone (as opposed to raising them as I have heard some other telcos are doing). Pac*Bell is fully aware of the use to which I put my phone lines and I have never had any crap about upgrading to business, "one line limit" per machine, or any of the nonsense that SWBT seems to be laying on its customers. This is, after all, Silly Con Vallee. As one Pac*Bell rep admitted to me, it is very common in this area for people to have many residential lines and have them heavily used for modem traffic. If Pac*Bell were to pull any of the horsehooey that seems to go on elsewhere, they would find many people up in arms. There are a lot of Pacific Telesis buildings in San Francisco to picket in front of, not to mention the State building down the street! John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !