judy@moray.uucp (Judy Scheltema) (03/07/89)
I don't know if you are interested in the battle against Southwestern Bell, but they have decided to get rather underhanded in Oklahoma City. Attached is a letter I received from a person there detailing their situation, along with his permission to post it publically. This was posted in alt.bbs, but that does not get the distribution that comp.dcom.telecom does. Since I got permission from Sean to post a private message he sent to me regarding Southwestern Bell's behavior in Oklahoma City, here is the text of his message. >From: uokmax!srpenndo Mon Feb 27 22:02:05 1989 >Date: Mon, 27 Feb 89 22:02:05 CST >You are welcome to post anything that I send you to the nets. Well, from what I hear about the BBS's here in the Oklahoma City Area (OKC), it's pretty much a stalemate. SWB is using a war-dialer in an attempt to find out what numbers are actually BBS numbers. Several hobby BBS's have already gone down. However, in support of the BBS community is a major TV news station (CBS I believe) and several corporate lawyers have also taken an interest in our side. The lawyers say (and this is second hand info to me, so I don't know how reliable it is) that a court case had come up several years ago concerning BBS's and SWB. In that case SWB lost which meant that it is illegal for SWB to raise our rates here. So far, I have heard that SWB is contacting sysops as they find out about BBS numbers. They are using a trick to get the sysops to say that they are "Non-Profit" BBS's. These poor victims are getting their rates increased. It has spread through the BBS community here like wildfire warning other sysops to NOT to agree to this non-profit ploy. Non-profit implies that you are taking in income to offset your expenses, but do not make a profit. This is simply not true for the hobby boards. We don't take in anything. I am sure that you have run into this yourself, but I felt I ought to mention it. Fortunately, we have very vocal users here and many of them are calling SWB by the hundreds telling SWB that if they raise the rates of the BBS's they will have their secondary lines taken out. Many sysops have said the same. This is the stalemate right now. Apparently, the SWB executives are realizing that if they do this they will actually make LESS money than if they leave us alone. After all, their whole purpose is to make more money. A user orginization is being put together here in an attempt to stir up enough opposition to this move by SWB for them to reconsider. So far it is working, though we are far from a settlement. The latest news I heard from one of the leaders of this new user group was that some major big-wig of SWB and AT&T just flew into OKC in an uproar about the actions taken by SWB here so far. Apparently, they do not like what the local executives are doing. More to be seen on this soon. In addition, he told me that the lawyers who have agreed to help us are investigating an incident out in California about this. Right now, that is all I know. We have support here, more than I expected. I will let you know about any new developments as they arise. Please send me info on the Houston area when you can. Thanks. -- Sean R. Penndorf | | Programming and Fantasy !texsun!uokmax!srpenndo | Welcome to Macintosh | go hand in hand... srpenndo@uokmax.UUCP | | They're both a pair of GEnie: S.PENNDORF | Ultimatum Software | dream worlds. -- Judy Scheltema | uunet!nuchat!moray!judy Houston, Texas | bellcore!texbell!moray!judy Fido address: 1:106/889.5 | urchin.fidonet.org!judy
jps@wucs1.wustl.edu (James Sterbenz) (03/15/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0083m01@vector.UUCP> judy@moray.uucp (Judy Scheltema) writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 83, message 1 of 5 > >I don't know if you are interested in the battle against Southwestern Bell, >but they have decided to get rather underhanded in Oklahoma City. [details on SWB vs. private BBS's in Oklahoma City] If anyone wants to complain to Southwestern Bell, you can try 800-392-2608. This is the general managers office; I got the number after being bounced around a few times through various SWB departments. It might be useful to call this number and indicate that the bad publicity is spreading outside of Oklahoma City; maybe SWB will rethink their position. By the way, I just called it myself; the person I talked to said that I would be contacted with a response. I'll post if it contains any useful information. -- James Sterbenz Computer and Communications Research Center Washington University in St. Louis 314-726-4203 INTERNET: jps@wucs1.wustl.edu UUCP: wucs1!jps@uunet.uu.net
scott@dtscp1.UUCP (Scott Barman) (03/17/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0083m01@vector.UUCP> judy@moray.uucp (Judy Scheltema) writes: > . . . explanation of the war with SouthWest Bell and Oklahoma City BBS > users deleted... >The latest news I heard from one of the leaders of this new user group was >that some major big-wig of SWB and AT&T just flew into OKC in an uproar >about the actions taken by SWB here so far. Apparently, they do not like >what the local executives are doing. More to be seen on this soon. >In addition, he told me that the lawyers who have agreed to help us are >investigating an incident out in California about this. Right now, that >is all I know. I am just curious in one point (I do support the BBS users/sysops/etc. even though I do not call/use/run them): How can AT&T get involved? Since the breakup I assume SWB is on its own (governed by Public Service Commissions and their Regional Bell Operating Co.) and I do not understand where AT&T fits in? -- scott barman {gatech, emory}!dtscp1!scott