davep@u.washington.edu (David Ptasnik) (12/15/90)
Heard on GMA - A California company called Flat Rate was offering long distance users unlimited long distance calling for a flat rate of $195.00 per month per line. They required a hefty advance payment and hookup charge (surprise, surprise) and for a while were actually placing calls. Presumably most of this money was going into some nice fat bank account, because the telqi pulled the plug fairly quickly. A legal document was shown, stating that Flat Rate owed Pac*Bell $300,000; GTE $140,000; and MCI $1,400,000 (ouch). GMA also stated that Flat Rate had applied for a business license in Florida, and had already received one in Georgia. They went on to hit small long distance companies pretty hard (there are a few good ones, but ...) and stated that the FCC really didn't have the time or staff to regulate companies smaller than AT&T, MCI, and Sprint. They ended with the standard warning - "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!." *ARRRRRGH* I've been in a telecom career for several years now, and it really annoys me when jokers like Flat Rate pull a scam like this. I feel that the telecom industry is getting a real reputation for sleazy operations. I appreciate forums like the Digest. They seem one of the better ways for the industry to clean itself up, and help keep tabs on miscreants like the AOS's or Flat Rate. I don't really have a point with this last bit, just wanted to air some frustration. Stay vigilant. Don't let the bastards get you down. Crime doesn't pay, etc. etc. etc. davep@u.washington.edu [Moderator's Note: I agree with your premises. So what next? The industry will get a lot worse before it gets better, believe me. PAT]
William.Degnan@f39.n382.z1.fidonet.org (William Degnan) (12/17/90)
On <Dec 14 23:46> David Ptasnik (davep@u.washington.edu ) writes to All: DP>A California company called Flat Rate was offering long distance DP>users unlimited long distance calling for a flat rate of $195.00 per DP>month per line. A similarly named company in Texas had an interesting operation. They had DIDs in Austin, Houston, Dallas/FtWorth and San Antonio which went via tandem switching and T-1 to those cities. You could get a virtual FX from them. They also had store-and-forward dialers which were installed on their customers' outgoing lines to capture traffic to the local calling areas of their served cities. Sure looked like a narrow "window of opportunity" to me. It was. The price reflected their low overhead and as I understand it, did not permit them to continue those rates when SWB told them they were violating the access tariffs (a lot). I keep asking, "What ever happened to Flat Rate Communications?". They seem to have quietly dissappeared. Disclaimer: Contents do not constitute "advice" unless we are on the clock. William Degnan | wdegnan@mcimail.com Communications Network Solutions | !wdegnan@at&tmail.com -Independent Consultants | William.Degnan@telemail.com in Telecommunications | UUCP: ...!natinst!tqc!39!William.Degnan P.O. Drawer 9530 | ARPA: William.Degnan@f39.n382.z1.FidoNet.Org Austin, TX 78766-9530 | Voice +1 512 323 9383