[9985] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
The IIA "free" internet account
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Paul Robinson)
Tue Feb 1 13:16:38 1994
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 1994 13:00:36 -0500 (EST)
From: Paul Robinson <PAUL@tdr.com>
Reply-To: Paul Robinson <PAUL@tdr.com>
To: Not For Mail <nobody@hottest.hell.int>
>From: Paul Robinson <PAUL@TDR.COM>
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA
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Awhile back there was talk here of a "free" account from the IIA
(International Internet Association). One of the comments was that they
required a credit card for people outside the local area who might use
their 800 number so the company could bill them at 25c a minute.
I personally coined the term for this: "The Nevada Plan". That's where a
company provides a service in which they pay for the service via charges
based on telephone calls into the service. A talk line in Nevada started
this in which you dialed a specific 702 number and were connected. The
kicker was that you had to call long distance via AT&T. AT&T gave them
the 2c/minute fee for the connection.
At least one other company has ticked off a similar deal with Sprint and
with MCI for another service.
For those of you going to one of the various convetions who would like to
be able to contact your home computer, there is already a full internet
service which is accessible as real "Nevada Plan" service - all it costs
is a call over AT&T to the provider's number - and doesn't have additional
charges larded onto it the way this 800 number thingy does. (They assess
the charges via the credit card supplied to them.)
The service is called Speedway, and the number - which has to be called
via AT&T - is (10288) 1-503-520-2222. I have no connection with that
company other than as someone who has used their service.
The provider of speedway offers shell access to a Unix system, and
includes full internet connectivity, including E-Mail, almost all national
newsgroups, and the usual internet tools including whois, ping, nslookup,
etc. The company also offers slip connections, and will act as a DNS
receiver for DNS forwarded mail for those wanting their own domain name.
All at no cost above the AT&T 12c a minute rates at night or higher during
days.
At my own request, they have added a gateway for outgoing SMTP mail,
which is accessed via the command SMTP at the login: prompt. This is
quite useful for a system that has an incoming mail gateway that wants a
means to post mail which is possibly less expensive.
Since the rate per minute is whatever AT&T charges - which is probably
less than 25c a minute except during daylight prime time and may be less
if you have a calling plan - this option is a suitable alternative to
using IIAs overpriced "free" service (unless you happen to be in the local
area of their service).
---
Paul Robinson - Paul@TDR.COM
Voted "Largest Polluter of the (IETF) list" by Randy Bush <randy@psg.com>
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