[comp.dcom.telecom] FCC reported ready to drop plan to boost phone charges

dplatt@coherent.UUCP (Dave Platt) (03/18/88)

Excerpted without permission from the 3/17/88 issue of the San Jose
Mercury News:

"Washington (AP) - The Federal Communications Commission plans to scrap
 a proposal that would substantially increase telephone charges for 
 business and home computer users.
 
"FCC Chairman Dennis R. Patrick has concluded that, based on strong and nearly
 unanimous opposition to the proposal, the plan should be dropped, according
 to sources at the commission and on Capitol Hill...
 
"The commission was expected to vote in two or three months to drop the
 proposal...
 
"Users of [database] services flooded the FCC and Capitol Hill with
 thousands of letters opposing the plan, which would add about $4.50 an hour
 to the cost of hooking up to information services.
 
"They said the increased charges, which would double the hourly hookup price
 for some information services, would drive many of them off the computer
 networks and crush a fledgling industry."

-- 

Dave Platt
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