On Thu, Jul 29, 1999 at 04:13:43PM +0100, Nick Humphries wrote: > Hmmm. I can't really see what the fuss is about if BT internet services use > their own 0800 numbers myself.
Not my rules, guv. However, the theory goes that if BT Internet does not have to pay for its 0800 number then it is using its position as a branch of BT unfairly (unfair in the sense that any other ISP would have to pay for the number). > Maybe it's a compromise. Consider this: how much business would BT lose out on > if ClaraNET did this with another telco instead of BT? ClaraNET wins because > it > gets more customers because they want "free phone calls". BT wins because it > gets SOME money instead of losing that bit of business to a competitor. Well, I don't know how much a local-rate phone call actually costs BT to run, but presumably it is non-zero. It also costs Clara to maintain the modems and pay for its transatlantic link. It just seemed unlikely to me that the extra cash would cover it. imc
