news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Mr. News) (02/20/91)
Lest we forget telecom companies other than US West --
From a recent {Newsbytes} report:
"Indiana Rejects GTE's 'PNS' Proposal for Caller ID, Requires Blocking
Options":
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has rejected GTE Telephone
Operations' proposal to test-market Caller ID with "protected number
service" ... Caller ID with PNS esssentially provides two phone
numbers with distinctive ringing patterns on a single line ... the
commission said that it would approve a Caller ID test if GTE would
offer all customers free per-call blocking and per-line blocking for a
one-time, non-recurring charge of $5.00.
Concern was also expressed over GTE's proposed pricing scheme. "While
Calling Number ID is priced at about 200% over cost for a residential
customer, PNS is priced at almost three times more than cost," the
commission said. It noted that the proposed $8.50 monthly charge for
PNS "is equivalent to the charge for monthly basic service" in the
planned test areas. "This concern is aggravated by the fact that more
than 80% of the alleged cost of PNS is attributed to an additional
$2.50 charge for non-published service. This charge is simply the
tariff rate for that service which has never been cost justified," the
commission said.
"Thus," it continued, "there is considerable concern about GTE's
motivation in pricing PNS: clearly it is not the cost of providing the
service, for such is cloaked in mystery. The fact that a subscriber to
non-published service must pay a charge equal to his monthly service
charge to maintain an inferior level of service under GTE's proposal
appears inappropriate."
Further, the commission said, "GTE indicates that it does not intend
to offer PNS to a subscriber unless that subscriber calls GTE to
complain about his number being involuntarily disclosed ... there is
further confusion about GTE's intention to notify non-participating
subscribers about Calling Number Identification in general. The bias
in such an approach is both self-evident and disturbing".
The commission also took issue with GTE's pricing proposal for Call
Trace. GTE wanted to increase the price to $5.00 per month. "The cost
of providing Call Trace ... the evidence indicates to be approximately
25 cents per month ... GTE has priced Call Trace at twenty times over
cost."