|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| home | help | back | first | fref | pref | prev | next | nref | lref | last | post |
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 10:29:00 +0500 From: francis@avalle.insoft.com (John [Francis] Stracke) To: com-priv@psi.com In-Reply-To: "Brock N. Meeks"'s message of Wed, 26 Jan 1994 16:50:36 -0800 <199401270050.QAA23405@well.sf.ca.us> >the credit card number was needed because the company providing the 800 >number access to the IIA host computers needed it to bill people, at 20 >cents per minute. "But we always told people that's what it was for," >he said. "And we do have a direct dial in number so people don't have to >use the 800 number if they don't want to," he said. I saw these guys at ComNet yesterday; they've changed their tune: if you don't want to give them your card #, that's fine; you just can't use the 800 #. >The organization was swamped with applications, some 40,000 have flooded >in since November, Robbins said. But only 16,000 have actually been given >accounts. He says they're working on the backlog. Gack. I applied yesterday, but I kinda doubt it's going to be any use if there's that many people on. Think I'll mail them & tell them not to bother. :-) >The upshot is that if your company is located in Rangoon, you can bypass >the outrageous long distance rates that Rangoon Telecom and Telegraph >normally charges, instead getting rates more in line with AT&T. IDT, which >has received its share of grief from several countries for taking hard >currency straight from their pockets, is headed Howard Jonas. What exactly is wrong with this? If Rangoon charges huge rates for dialing out, but doesn't demand huge settlements from US companies, they're gouging their own citizens and giving preferential treatment to foreigners. This we should support? >For all its talk of good will and free access, the IIA seems to be nothing >more than a front-loaded, money making machine for Jonas. The guy is a >sharp entrepreneur and he saw dollar signs in those free IIA accounts. By >providing the 800 number (which most people still think is always a free >call) If that's what they think, they didn't read the papers IIA gives out. I don't recall what they said in the email announcement, though. > he saw a way to generate millions of dollars from anxious users >thinking they were getting "free" Internet accounts. At 20 cents/minute, it wouldn't make any sense to *me* (their toll line is in NJ, which is about 15 cents for me); but it could still be worthwhile for somebody in a rural area, with no dialup account available anywhere nearby. >You do the math: Figure 40,000 users (if the IIA grows no bigger than >current applications) dialing in 10 hours a month. If they use the 800 >number that whole time, IDT racks in a whopping $4.8 million PER MONTH in >access fees alone. Free my ass. IDT still has to pay for the 800 line. I don't know how 800 #s are charged, but I expect the bulk rate will mean savings. Yesno? >providers, he says. But when asked how he defined the word "bid," Robbins >said: "Well, we asked them if they wanted to give us service." In other > >Robbins justifies this hat-in-hand procurement process by claiming that >companies now making money off providing Internet service "have an >obligation to give something back to the people." The world would be a <blink> Good Lord. What I was told at ComNet yesterday was that they make their money by marketing their mailing list to technology companies. None of the above should be taken as an endorsement of IIA, just as mitigating the shadiness somewhat. It's pretty clear what they're trying, and why; it's also pretty clear that it's going to fail. 40K people are going to swamp any facilities a racket like this can scrounge up, and people like Doug H. will be able to say, "See, I *told* you it was hard." :-) /===========================================================================\ |John (Francis) Stracke | My opinions are my own. | |InSoft, Inc. |==================================================| |Mechanicsburg, PA | Please do not adjust your mind--reality is | |francis@insoft.com | malfunctioning. | \===========================================================================/
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| home | help | back | first | fref | pref | prev | next | nref | lref | last | post |