[12071] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Another EFF response to policy questions
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Russell Nelson)
Wed May 4 05:39:09 1994
Date: Tue, 3 May 94 10:48 EDT
From: nelson@crynwr.com (Russell Nelson)
To: djw@eff.org
Cc: frezza@radiomail.net, farber@central.cis.upenn.edu, com-priv@psi.com,
stahlman@radiomail.net, dbuck@world.std.com, ggilder@mcimail.com,
gbolles@radiomail.net, rre-maintainers@weber.ucsd.edu,
Sam_Boyle@mcimail.com, brodsky@radiomail.net, mech@eff.org
In-Reply-To: <199405030121.VAA09790@eff.org> (djw@eff.org)
Can we cut out the extensive CC'ing? If these people wanted to see
this stuff, they'd subscribe to com-priv. So, from now on, my
responses will only go to com-priv.
Date: Mon, 2 May 1994 21:21:37 -0600
From: djw@eff.org (Daniel J. Weitzner)
Cc: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu, com-priv@psi.com, stahlman@radiomail.net,
dbuck@world.std.com, ggilder@mcimail.com, gbolles@radiomail.net,
rre-maintainers@weber.ucsd.edu, Sam_Boyle@mcimail.com,
brodsky@radiomail.net, mech@eff.org
... that most telephone companies (the only ones able to provide
this service) were failing to deploy it or price it affordably.
It's possible that the local loop is a natural monopoly that no amount
of technology can fix. How would we know, since we've given total
control over it to the telcos? There's no incentive to do the
research into technology that would open the local loop, because there
are very few open market local loops.
Stahlman has nationwide access to MCI Mail because of a ubiquitous,
affordable telephone network, another result of government
regulation.
So if the monopoly telephone network is so good, why can't my friend,
who lives ten miles away from the CO, afford a second phone line for
his modemming? His one phone line costs the same as my two, because
of line charges.
Let's not praise the telcos *too* highly. I don't -- my father worked
for one for 35 years.
