[10913] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: The FCC strikes the Internet (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barney Wolff)
Mon Mar 14 08:50:12 1994
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 94 03:27:55 -0500
From: Barney Wolff <barney@databus.com>
To: karl@mcs.com (Karl Denninger)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
>From: karl@mcs.com (Karl Denninger)
>Date: Sun, 13 Mar 1994 20:30:00 -0600 (CST)
>
>I advocate that the
>government NOT force the imposition of settlements on the
>telecommunications companies. As it stands right now those settlements are
>a matter of law.
Karl, are you saying that the LECs charge IXCs ruinous rates not because
they want to, but because they're required to? So what if that rate
becomes deregulated, if the LEC is still the monopoly provider of the
local loop? Merely unbundling the local loop doesn't help, if the LEC
is free to charge whatever it wants for it. The only alternative I see is
to break that monopoly, and you then have nasty issues of interconnect.
>Doing this would be a TRUE good to society. You'd accomplish a number of
>things:
>
>1) Make flat-rate national phone service possible.
>2) Make flat-rate CELLULAR phone service possible.
Possible, but at what cost? I get charged 45-55 cents a minute, of which
at most 10 is going to the LEC and probably less. What's your guess at
a target price for flat-rate cellular? (That's assuming flat-rate really
means unlimited-use. There are plenty of plans offering X minutes per
month included in the monthly rate, but the rate definitely varies with X.)
I don't see how, when the cost of providing a service varies directly
with the volume of usage, flat rates can be anything but very high. Do
you have a feel for how many hours per month your average user is
logged on, for the $20? (If that's not confidential.)
Barney Wolff, Pres. Voice: 914-591-6572
Databus Inc. Fax: 914-591-5677
15 Victor Drive Internet: barney@databus.com
Irvington, NY 10533-1919 USA "At the corner of database & datacomm"
