frank@uunet.uu.net> (09/01/90)
I have long wanted to get a "computer readable" version of my phone bill from the phone company. They only offer a very expensive nine track tape option and that only to "business customers". Not only do they ignore residental customers, but the format and cost are so high they keep many small companies with a "few PCs" from getting the service as well. I have an idea for a fairly inexpensive piece of equipment that could probably support 5,000 to 10,000 customers a month and cost only about $100,000 to build. If the phone company only charges $10 per customer for the service they will get all their money back in a couple months. What I need to know is how many people out there would really be interested in such a service from the phone company. I would, and I believe I am not alone. I want to write up a little "questionairre" and send it out just to "ca" (I only want to cover the PacBell area for now). The questionaire would have a description of the service (a little more than I have given you here) and then questions like: Would you pay $10 a month for this service? How concerned would you be if a copy of your bill was decoded by another user on a public network? Would you be will to release the phone company from such a liability, and so on. What do you think the proper forum for such a question are should be? If professionally done, would you be willing to release it here in TELECOM Digest? Frank uunet!odetics!frank [Moderator's Note: Why don't you write your questionairre and send it to the folks who respond to your posting here? Not all will be from California of course, but by getting an idea of the general level of interest, you can make some reasonable assumptions about your target area. Then, send the results when you have tallied them. Readers who wish to participate should write to Frank: uunet!odetics!frank. PAT]