telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) (01/14/91)
As the next message in our Digest today will explain, a compromise has been reached between Southwestern Bell and sysops in their service territory. Perhaps this compromise will serve as a guideline for other telcos faced with the same decision. To me, it seems like a reasonable solution and should satisfy most sysops who -- as it has been pointed out here many times -- are basically trying to combine their hobby with public service to their community. At the risk of having someone write to news.groups and say something silly about how 'the Moderator never prints anything which would prove him wrong', may I respectfully ask that anything still unsaid on this issue be written up and submitted in the next day or two so that the topic can be closed here later in the week. It has taken up a huge amount of bandwidth here in recent days. Thanks. Also I want to thank Ed Hopper for typing in the lengthy report which follows and getting it in to the Digest on a timely basis. PAT
peter@taronga.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) (01/22/91)
> To me, it seems like a reasonable solution and should satisfy most > sysops who -- as it has been pointed out here many times -- are > basically trying to combine their hobby with public service to their > community. I hope not. That BBS you said in response to my last message sounded like it should not be put under business rates does *not* qualify for residential rates under the compromise simply because it is running more than three lines. A criterion, by the way, that has nothing to do with cost recovery (in fact the more lines the more income for the phone company) or anything else you have been saying should qualify a BBS as a business. While this isn't something that has been "left unsaid" (I've said it before), I think it needs to be brought up at this time. The only reason for the multi-line restriction is to keep multi-line BBSes down so that there is less competition for Southwestern Bell's favored Videotel services. peter@taronga.uucp.ferranti.com