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Re: Phone charges for internet



I'd be more sympathetic toward the phone companies if it didn't cost me
$25/month simply to have the thing sit in my home to allow tele-marketers to
interrupt my dinner. The problem with the FCC proposal is that it
discriminates against internet (ISP connection) use over just talking for
hours on the phone. I personally have no problem with metered service IF
the cost of having the phone were very low (<$10/month) and timed charges
applied to all calls.

The problem really is that the phone companies have fallen behind in terms
of capacity and are trying to avoid expensive upgrades of their systems. To
be sure, WE will pay for such upgrades, but the cost can be spread more
evenly by charging more to users like ISPs (then your monthly ISP bills go
up) and especially to users like the Tele-marketers who clog the phone lines
with JUNK calls.

rick

-----Original Message-----
From: John Mallinckrodt <ajmallinckro@CSUPomona.Edu>


Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but maybe we ought to entertain, just for
a moment, the notion that the phone companies have a point. As much as I
might regret not being able to make a free local phone call to the
University and then camp out on that phone line for the rest of time, I
must say that I am not without a certain amount of sympathy for the phone
companies' point of view on this matter. And to suggest that their
response is motivated by nothing more than innate evil strikes me as a
little disingenuous.

John