[9736] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Another quickie on levels of telco service
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Pres Smith)
Tue Jan 18 22:06:07 1994
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 22:05:09 -0500
From: Pres Smith <PGSMITH@ucsvax.ucs.umass.edu>
To: com-priv@psi.com
X-Vms-To: IN%"com-priv@psi.com"
Clay Shirky writes:
>>
>> 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
Could I point out that for most of us the benefits of long distance
telephone service are hardly applicable. Some on this list may be
able to afford long distance calls. In the real world they are a
luxury on top of local service that, not matter how reduced in cost,
cannot be afforded.
In the past 20 years, my local service costs have more than
doubled while real wages have fallen. If one were in a bracket to
use long distance on other than an emergency basis, perhaps this
would even things up, but as it is, these "reductions" are available
only to those who can afford to pay incrementally more for these
frills.
This is not meant to question the original point--I favored the
breakup of A T & T and would like to have seen it go further, but
the "let them eat cake" stuff has gone unchallenged too long.
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Prescott Smith pgsmith@educ.umass.edu
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