jsol@BUIT1.BU.EDU.UUCP (12/05/86)
Date: Thu 4 Dec 86 17:47:22-EST From: "Hank R. "Jim" Dixon" <MDCG.HRD%OZ.AI.MIT.EDU@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU> ** Important Announcement ** The use of a Residence telephone line in the State of Massachusetts for a Computer BBS is illegal. I have been recently made aware of this by New England Telephone. Because of this, my BBS is now Business service. If you run a BBS or other computer system from your home, YOU may be next. The following is an exerpt from the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities tariffs, relating to New England Telephone: Exerpt from DPU/NET Tariffs volume A, Section 5.1, subsection D: "The use of measured or unlimited residence exchange service is restricted to the customer, members of the household, and persons temporarily leasing a customer's residental premesis. The above provisions shall not be construed or applied to bar a customer from allowing a social guest or business visitor the incidental or occasional use of his service." Unfortunately, "use" of the telephone service is not restrcted to placing outgoing calls from it. The leaving of messages, uploading and downloading of files, and other things encountered in BBS usage is considered to be "use" of the telephone line. Fortunately, if you just use one of these systems and dont run one, you dont have much to worry about. Apparently, they dont have much to say about using data (outgoing wise) from a Residence line. These restrictions are not just limited to BBS's. It applies to all types of telephone entertainment, including information recordings, joke lines, comment lines, and conference lines. This means pretty clearly that if you are going to run a system in Mass., you are going to have to pay for it dearly. This may have a tendency to eliminate most non-subscription / free systems that presently exist. If you have any questions that I may be able to answer, please call my system at (617)623-6969 and leave me (LAMBDA-BOY) mail. -- JIM (LAMBDA-BOY) --
rdsnyder@MIT-CCC.UUCP.UUCP (12/11/86)
It is clear from the context of the quoted section of the tariff that one "uses" a telephone line only when making an outgoing call. Otherwise, all calls would violate the tariff, except for someone "calling home," since the callers would not be a member of the called party's household or a person renting the called party's premises. The tariffs should have certainly defined the meaning of "using" a telephone line, but I disagree with New England Tel's interpretation. I'd take up the matter with the DPU before allowing NET to charge business rates for a bbs. While I believe that the use of a BBS on a residential line agrees with the quoted portion of the tariffs, there may be other parts of the tariffs that would prohibit the use of a BBS on a residential line, particularly if the BBS operator is receiving payment for the use of the BBS.
johnl@ima.UUCP.UUCP (12/11/86)
About requiring business service for a BBS in Massachusetts: So it says that the phone can only be used by the subscriber and immediate family? If I had a BBS, I'd certainly claim that everybody calling the BBS was calling me. Who else would they be calling? It would be different if I had an employee answering the phone, but a computer is hardly an employee. About 700 numbers: All of the ALDS services use 700 numbers a little bit. When I need to call the MCI business office, I call 1-700-624-5555. I suspect that they will all end up putting their service calls on 700 numbers so they don't have to pay for so many 800 numbers. John Levine, ima!johnl or Levine@YALE.whatever
goldstein@debet.DEC.COM.UUCP (12/11/86)
Once again, the sky is falling.
Somehow, somebody got the notion that someone who is calling _in_ to
a BBS is "using" the phone line, and therefore it isn't "residential".
Tell me, (no that's rhetorical only) is your line no longer residential
when you get solicited by insurance agents, newspapers, and other
businesses? They're "using" your line!
The mere fact that there's a BBS on it doesn't prove diddly. If the BBS
is in fact a business (you get money for it) or is used in the regular
transaction of business, then of course it's a business line. But if it's
a hacker BBS used for personal messages, freeware and other stuff,
then it can be viewed as incidental to your residence. ALL phone calls
are bidirectional -- I hear you talk, you hear me, right? The fact that
the "resident" is a computer doesn't mean that the call is suddenly
different. (Unless the computer is business.)
Likewise, calling work from home is a Residence usage. Even if I call
up my office computer to do "work at home", it's still Residential.
I've been on the front lines of that one, too.
If, however, you call up the low-level clerk who answers the phone at the
Telco business office and say, "isn't my computer bulletin board at home
a business service?" or some other dorky thing like that, they'll
be sure to agree! They usually don't want trouble. If you give them
a hard time, though, they'll give you one right back!
My advice: Don't stir up sh*t. Order a plain old residence line and
don't say "BBS". If you're not running a business, you're okay. People
are just calling you up and talking to your electronic answering machine.
The tariffs are ancient, and you don't want to reopen the political wars
that surround the residential discounts and business overcharges.
fredSTERNLIGHT@USC-ECL.ARPA (12/23/86)
I think most of you are missing the point. I guess the phone company is arguing that since non-family members leave files or messages on the BBS for others to receive, the effect is as if the message leaver (non-family member) made an outgoing call from your phone to the subsequent message receiver. Although I think it's pretty shoddy of the BOC to act this way, I can see their logic.