[2799] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: The fate of Internet, further comments
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (gkushmer@Jade.Tufts.EDU)
Thu Jun 4 09:21:01 1992
To: marc@MIT.EDU
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 92 9:18:02 EDT
From: gkushmer@Jade.Tufts.EDU
>>> Dialog does NOT charge you extra if you connect to them via TELENET or
>>> TYMNET which they do not own.
>That's because you, as a TELENET or TYMNET subscriber, pay for the
>connection when you originate. I may be wrong on this, but I believe
>it functions like the telephone: you don't pay for incoming calls.
But my point is not how I pay these other services, but how Dialog charges
me to use the internet especially when both Dialog and I have to pay to
be on the internet in the first place.
>>> It is this additional charge that annoys me so....
>>> Dialog pays a fee to be on the net, but they do not own it.
>So what? I know many services which charge for access by telephone.
>They don't own AT&T, either. People will charge you to ship something
>on federally subsidized roads, and they don't own those. I don't see
>it as being wrong. Dialog needs to recoup its costs. Perhaps hourly
>is a somewhat bogus way of doing it, but if you don't like it, get the
>service somewhere who charges a flat rate or something.
The way you pay to use AT&T as well as highways are different from
the way you pay to use the internet. AT&T works on both
a monthly fee and on a per call basis (unless you get a special package- but
this package costs on top of your "user fee"). On the highways, you
pay for it through state & federal taxes as well as through tolls. The
money you pay UPS also goes for the time/labor used in using their
trucks/personnel.
In both cases the material you transport is being charged on the means
of that transport. AT&T charges you for using their lines - UPS for their
trucks/delivery people. But my understanding of the internet is that
you pay for the facilities and then rent the roads/phone lines in the
form of the internet. Correct me if I am wrong (please) but I was
told that you pay to use the internet with an established fee paid
like dues. Taxpayer money fills the gaps on internet.
But my other point has been on fairness on Dialog charges: Dialog users who
dial in on Tymnet/Telenet are charged the exact same rates for using
Dialog files yet pay less to Dialog for the service (because there is no
connect time charges like the $3/hr for telneting in).
If Dialog charged for using Telenet/Tyment to get in, then I wouldn't
be as annoyed - there would be at least a semblance of consistency.
As to Dialog needing to recoup their costs - I don't see their need being
so clear and present so that if they don't get their costs, Dialog
will operate at a loss. Dialog, a subsidiary of the Knight-Ridder
Corporation, does quite well for itself: it has a solid financial base.
Over time, a greater number of people will both need internet and use
Dialog. Telneting in will be a more common occurence and Dialog will
get it's money back.
Dialog spends money on technicians and equipment to keep the phone lines
active yet these charges are not directly handed back to the consumer.
Meanwhile Dialog directly charges internet users an extra bill after
the internet user has paid for the internet connection. What adds insult
to injury is that Dialog, in their 12/91 "Chronolog" announced to literally
the world that Dialog is now on internet and described what one needed to
do to get on internet.
If a company gets interested in getting on the net bacause of this little blurb
they might be discouraged to find them paying that extra fee on top of all
their startup costs to be on internet. That company might find
other uses for internet, but Dialog does not come out shining.
--gk
I should probably say that I do not represent Tufts University. The above
are reflections of my own thoughts and not this university. (I hate
these things).
