W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA (Keith Petersen) (06/12/87)
Here we go again!! From the Wall Street Journal, June 11, 1987... PHONE-ACCESS FEE IS PROPOSED FOR COMPUTERS: FCC WOULD MAKE FIRMS PAY TO LINK NETWORKS TO LOCAL PHONE LOOPS By Bob Davis, Staff Reporter of the WSJ WASHINGTON - The Federal Communications Commission proposed a fee that would steeply increase telecommunications charges for many business and residential computer users. Under the FCC proposal, companies such as US Sprint Communications Co.'s Telenet subsidiary and McDonnell Douglas Corp.'s Tymnet unit would be charged as much as $5 per hour per user to hook up their communication networks to local telephone loops. Currently, computer networks are exempt from these so- called access charges. The charges would almost certainly be passed on to consumers and business customers. US Sprint is a joint venture of GTE Corp. of Stamford, Conn. and United Telecommunications Inc., Kansas City, Mo. Price increases would be a big blow for millions of personal- computer hobbyists who depend on computer networks to communicate cheaply with one another and to call up such information services as H&R Block Inc.'s Compuserve Inc. Currently, most customers pay only a few dollars an hour in telephone costs. The proposal also would be a major setback for Telenet and Tymnet, which have attracted consumers and business customers with discount computer telecommunications rates. These companies rent private telephone lines, which previously haven't been subject to access charges, and spread the costs among thousands of computer users. Rate increases "will dry up the marketplace for new and innovative computer services" said Joseph Markowski, counsel for Adapso, a trade association of computer service companies. "Prices will go through the roof." He added that the proposal would improperly discriminate between computer-network companies and other companies that maintain their own data networks. The latter companies apparently wouldn't be charged access fees under the FCC proposal. Clark Woodford, a Compuserve executive vice president, said any access charges "will cause us to reassess our pricing structure." The FCC voted 4-0 to seek comment on a plan to end the access- charge exemption by Jan 1, 1988. The commissioners said the exemption amounted to a subsidy for the computer-network companies that was being paid by business and residential telephone users. "We don't want the (telecommunications) network to evolve in response to various subsidies and anomalities [sic]," said FCC Chairman Dennis Patrick. Agency staffers and others said the Jan 1 date wasn't firm. Page Montgomery, vice president of Economics and Technology, Inc. a Boston telecommunications company, urged the agency to delay the decision for perhaps a year until the local phone companies change their networks to give competitors equal connections. Otherwise, the regional Bell companies, which are trying to enter the computerized-communications field, would have a big advantage. That's because the computer-service companies would be burdened with price increases and also wouldn't be able to offer hook-ups to the local telephone network that are as good as those offered by the phone companies. "It would be a serious policy mistake" to end the exemption Jan. 1, 1988, Mr. Montgomery said. The FCC said that access charges should decline over the next few years, by about a dollar per hour, as the agency increases residential charges for connecting to the telephone network. Much of the revenue from these assessments is used to reduce the access charges paid by telecommunications companies. The FCC proposal came as a surprise. In March, the agency decided that computer-network companies should remain deregulated, which industry observers interpreted to mean that rates wouldn't increase. But now the FCC said that only purely private networks, operated by some big companies for their internal communications, would remain free of access charges.
Phil_CW_Sih@cup.portal.com.UUCP (06/13/87)
This proposal threatens to ruin the entire online industry overnight. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fight something like this? Phil Sih 408/973-9111
W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA (Keith Petersen) (06/14/87)
One way to fight the FCC proposal is to contact your congressman.
Congress has frequently overridden the FCC on unpopular rulings by
changing the law. Also, when you call or write your congressman,
he/she will contact the FCC to ask what's going on. When the FCC gets
a lot of calls from congressman they get nervous (and rightly so
because their budget can be cut).
--Keith Petersen
Arpa: W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA
Uucp: {bellcore,decwrl,harvard,lll-crg,ucbvax,uw-beaver}!simtel20.arpa!w8sdz
GEnie: W8SDZ
RCP/M Royal Oak: 313-759-6569 - 300, 1200, 2400 (V.22bis) or 9600 (USR HST)mofo@well.UUCP (06/18/87)
The FCC is accepting comments on the ruling. You can file your comments by
writing to:
Office of Opinion and Review
The Secretary
1919 M Street, N.W.
Room 222
Washington, D.C. 20554
*** Refer to: "Interstate Access Charges Exemption for Enhanced
Service Providers CC Docket 87-208"
Copies of the announcement are available by calling the FCC at
(202) 632-7000.
This information came from Whole Earth's WELL conferencing system,
thanks to Brock Meeks; found in Grateful Dead conference 297.4, 6-15-87.
Discussion since then is encouraging; letters are filed by docket number
(so *use it*) and counted at least, presumably eventually read as well.
Send copies to your representatives but send the comment to the FCC address!
--HR