[17340] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: The Great Exchange
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stephen Sprunk)
Fri May 29 11:46:43 1998
To: salo@networkcs.com (Tim Salo)
Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 10:39:54 -0500 (CDT)
Cc: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <199805291501.KAA01148@us.networkcs.com> from "Tim Salo" at May 29, 98 10:01:16 am
From: sprunk@paranet.com (Stephen Sprunk)
Maybe some telcos, but not all...
When SWBell (sorry, "SBC") bought PacBell, I remember reading that
SWBell was the "most profitable of the Baby Bells." So, considering
SWBell's buying craze and the aforementioned statement, one could
reasonably assume that SWBell has a competitive business plan. Let's
examine SWBell's local POTS offerrings:
. Flat rate per month, large local calling area
In Houston, my local calling area (for a *normal* phone line) was over
75 miles in diameter. This was for $17/mo. Dallas has a similar
calling area. There is no charge of any kind for local calls.
. Flat rate per month, bigger local calling area
In Dallas, I can subscribe to a "metro line", which adds the entire
Ft. Worth calling area to my already large Dallas calling area. This
is for a mere $8/mo, and works both ways (people in Ft. Worth can call
me local too).
. Flat rate per month, massive local calling area
In either city, I also have the option of getting "local plus"
service, which gives me a local calling area of about 1/4 of Texas,
which is a staggering thought (for POTS service). This is for around
$25/mo over the regular rate.
And let's not forget the cell/PCS carriers, which charge no long
distance intra-state, and some are no longer charging inter-state
either. In fact, my PCS phone is so cheap (for ALL calls), I am on the
verge of cancelling my POTS line.
Then again, some of you don't have the good sense to live in Texas :)
Stephen
Sez Tim Salo:
>
> It should also be noted that the phone companies have trying to eliminate
> unmetered (on the basis of time) local phone service. I believe that there
> are fewer and fewer areas with unmetered (based on time) local phone service.
>
> So, I think a closer examination of your example may yield a different
> result.
>
--
Stephen Sprunk, KD5DWP "Oops." Email: sprunk@paranet.com
Sprint Paranet -Albert Einstein ICBM: 33.00151N 96.82326W
