[9746] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Another quickie on levels of telco service
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Willis Marti)
Wed Jan 19 11:31:03 1994
From: Willis Marti <willis@cs.tamu.edu>
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 10:25:13 -0600
To: PGSMITH@ucsvax.ucs.umass.edu, com-priv@psi.com
Prescott Smith wrote:
> 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.
Over the past 20 years the amount of subsidy *given* to local service has
fallen (taken from long distance profits) -- pricing has gotten closer to the
actual cost for both local and long distance. Part of the justification for
this has been "universal access", meaning everyone should be able to have a
phone. Many people (myself included) think a way should be found for
universal data access.
But when you want prices lower, say *who* you want to subsidize your costs,
and *why*.
Z
