Mitchell Kapor <mkapor@eff.org> (06/20/91)
On June 13 the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities held its
first public hearing about NYNEX's newly re-filed ISDN tariff.
Prodigy, Sprint, MCI, and the New England Cable Television Association
were present and are expected to enter the proceedings as intervenors
(opponents). The DPU's decision will not come before October. In the
meantime there will be hearings and briefs.
While telcos appear to have made national ISDN deployment a priority,
prices in New England are prohibitively high. While ISDN access
itself would be available for a fixed monthly fee to business and
residential subscribers, there would always be a "metered" usage fee.
A circuit-switched connection from a subscriber to a provider would be
charged under the "Switchway" tariff, which carries a substantial per
minute usage charge (about 16 cents). Packet-switched connections
would be charged under the "Infopath" tariff, which carries a
substantial per kilopacket charge (60-70 cents per kilopacket). Both
of these compare very unfavorably to residential and business rates
for a voice-grade line over which data can be transmitted at 19.2
kpbs.
I gave testimony at the hearing which emphasized ISDN as an enabling
technology for a telecommunications platform to spur information
innovators.
"I believe there are substantial and vastly under-appreciated
entrepreneurial opportunities which would arise out of the wide-spread
availability of ISDN at affordable prices. To understand why, it's
helpful to appreciate a bit of history of the personal computer field.
"The most important contribution of the PC field is not a product, but
an idea. It is the idea that a good computer system is simply a
platform upon which other parties can exercise their ingenuity to
build great applications. When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak conceived
of the Apple II computer in a Silicon Valley garage in the mid-1970's,
they had no clear idea what it would be used for. But they went to
great trouble to make it attractive for software developers to use. "
It also called for lower rates to stimulate demand. In order to be
attractive to business and residential customers in large numbers, the
price of ISDN must be comparable to what they are already paying for
an analog data line. My guess is that "comparable" means 1-2x the
existing rate. The filed rates are so high they will create an
artificially low demand.
My understanding is that Pac Bell's ISDN tariff is more reasonable.
If anyone has details about this, I would appreciate hearing about it.
A full copy of my testimony may be found in ~ftp/isdn/isdn.testimony
on eff.org.
If you and/or your company is interested in participating in an effort
to persuade the DPU in Massachusetts to set low, affordable ISDN
rates, drop a note to isdn@eff.org. EFF will be coordinating an
advocacy campaign on this issue and we would like your support.
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[Moderator's Note: Mr. Kapor is an officer and founding member of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation. PAT]