[2303] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
re: commercial use and billing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Craig Partridge)
Wed Feb 5 19:28:55 1992
To: drw@bourbaki.mit.edu
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Reply-To: Craig Partridge <craig@aland.bbn.com>
From: Craig Partridge <craig@aland.bbn.com>
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 92 16:24:07 -0800
> Are there any known general ways to solve the problem? For instance,
> how does BBN handle your office phone? Certainly, the phone company
> doesn't provide fixed-price long distance phone lines. How do
> companies deal with that?
We're starting to rehash old topics, but to summarize, different companies
deal with telephone calls different ways:
(1) some treat it as overhead, usually with some control (like if
your phone calls exceed amount X, an accountant may ask you to
come review it)
(2) some require you to account on a per-phone call basis (by punching in
a code -- though codes can also be used for internal classification
purposes rather than billing). Bills may come out of your immediate
manager's budget and cause pressure if your bill gets high (even for
legit purposes).
(3) some organizations (universities often) strictly ration long distance
phone calls, requiring you to use special phones which are controlled.
Observe that only solution (1) is largely hassle-free for the honest user.
But because phone calls are variable and thus unpredictable, many companies
try schemes (2) or (3) instead. (Pleasantly, BBN is not one).
I grant that there's exists a space where pay-for-use is less expensive
for the consumer, but submit that this space is very small. I haven't
done the computation for the current providers' price lists, but in the
past the point at which a flat rate became beneficial was usually at
between 2 to 4 hours of connection time a day.
Craig
