"Your local telephone company has filed a proposal with the FCC to impose per >minute charges for your Internet service. They contend that your usage has or >will hinder the operation of the telephone network. It is my belief that >Internet usage will diminish if users were required to pay additional per >minute charges. The FCC has created an e-mail box for your comments. >Responses must be received by February 13, 1998. Send your comments to >[email protected] and tell them what you think. Every phone company is in on this >one and they are trying to sneak it in just under the wire for litigation. >Let everyone you know hear this one. Get the e-mail address to everyone you >can think of.." > >E-mail address again is [email protected] >This litigation will certainly affect the number of hours I spend on the >Internet and it will be truly detrimental to a number of people who may be on >fixed incomes....I have already voiced my opinion to the FCC and by sending >this to you..I hope you can reach many Internet users and spread the >word..Perhaps if enough people respond ...it won't happen....I also think we >should contact all major news services and let them hear our voices....Please >help spread the word and send your comments off today... > >If you need any ideas for your comments, I include my own below. > >For years the RBOCs have been milking the public through outrageous and non- >cost-based "access charges" for long distance, tone dialing, inside wiring >"insurance" scams etc., offering essentially no value in exchange. Now they >want to milk us further by charging extra for wireline dialup modem use. This >is another example of how the phone companies expect a return on no >investment. Instead of whining to the FCC for more income, they should be >going out and GETTING income - from ISDN, ADSL, cable partnerships etc., where >they WOULD be adding value to the customer's service. > >Adding charges to Telco dialup access would have a severe damping effect on >the growth of the most important advance in the history of communications >since the invention of the telephone. > >The Telcos have been very vague about the use of these new funds. If they use >them for network "voice circuit bypass" improvements to handle traffic from >dial-up facilities, they will only be discouraging migration to higher-speed >access modalities. If they use the funds to invest in future, high-speed >access modalities, while their competitors are forced to go to the equity and >debt markets to provide similar capabilities, they will have an unfair >advantage over their future competitors. If the FCC grants revenue >improvements to the incumbents for this type of service, it will be >discriminating against Telco competitors and reversing its well-established, >pro-competitive policies of the past decade. Telephone companies should be >subject to the same laws of the market place as anyone else. Let them INVEST >in exchange for income, instead of regarding it as some kind of divine right >that network improvements should be financed a priori out of customer revenue. > >In February 1997 I contacted U S WEST for installation of an ISDN phone line. >I have yet to hear from them; last week I sold the house where the order was >placed, and have still to hear from my alleged "service provider" with respect >to my order. If this is the kind of service we get, we should not be expected >to shell out extra money for the only alternative we are left with. > >In the past fifteen years the personal computer has seen improvements ranging >from the hundreds to the thousands in processor power, memory, graphics >definition, storage and so on. During the same decade the capability for one >computer to talk to another through dial-up Telco facilities has improved >about four-fold, and has now reached its limit. It is unconscionable that the >Telcos should expect some kind of revenue concession in exchange for providing >the worst and most enduring bottleneck in the history of modern technology, >and for being so slow and uncertain in providing alternatives. Let them >remove the bottleneck first before they are entitled to any concessions. > > >Dr. Ray W. Nettleton >Chief Technology Officer, Formus Communications Inc. >The Galleria Office Towers >720 South Colorado Boulevard, Suite 600 North >Denver, Colorado 80246 >(303) 504 3240 voice >(303) 809 4223 portable >(303) 504 3201 fax >[email protected]
=============================================================== Keith A. Goshia Phone: (303) 247-5025 Senior Regulatory Engineer Cell: (303) 507-0158 D-1021 Fax: (303) 247-5115 Qualcomm Inc. Pager: (800) 401-3175 5450 Western Ave. Lab: (303) 247-5107 Boulder CO, 80301 E-mail: [email protected] =============================================================== What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
