[9726] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Another quickie on levels of telco service
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Clay Shirky)
Tue Jan 18 10:14:11 1994
From: Clay Shirky <clays@panix.com>
To: Gregory=Kushmerek%AcctgMed%FIN@humres-server.net.tufts.edu
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 10:09:53 -0500 (EST)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9401181411.AA01348@psi.com> from "Gregory=Kushmerek%AcctgMed%FIN@humres-server.net.tufts.edu" at Jan 18, 94 09:11:48 am
>
> Dick St.Peter's notes:
>
> > Karl's obviously correct that the cost of long distance service has
> > come way down. We pay less (for long distance), but we get less too -
> > the "level" of service, to use Adam's term, has declined.
>
> I can't agree about the level of service. Today, thanks to the market...
Nor I. I got a Sprint account the year it started up; my rates went down,
I could make calls on an 800 number from every pay phone and hotel room
in the country w/o paying exorbitant surcharges, as time went on I could
do that from overseas as well, and whenever I have come across a rotary
phone their operators have placed the call for me at no extra charge.
Add to that the fact that I use SprintNet for data transmissions and their
network gives me *very* litle line noise, even when I've had to dial direct
from Europe, and that this all costs less than it did when Ma Bell broke up,
and I have to say that I can't think of a single thing that *hasn't*
improved with longdistnce service over the years.
--
Clay Shirky
