sl@van-bc.UUCP (pri=-10 Stuart Lynne) (01/08/89)
In article <7400@chinet.chi.il.us> patrick@chinet.chi.il.us (Patrick A. Townson) writes: >Long distance may not be (to you) inexpensive, but I think it is quite a >bargain. In any event, Telenet is asking for $1 per hour, and has agreed to >permit multiple accounts per user/household. If you think $1 per hour is >some sort of ripoff, then I cannot understand why you even own a modem. You >say 'at $30 per month PCP will cost more than your monthly phone bill...' >and I can only assume your monthly phone bill is somewhere between $25-30 >per month since you did not offer this complaint when PCP was charging $25 >per month. What do you think your phone bill would be without PCP? Or would >you simply not make as many long distance data calls? > I agree. I only wish we could get it up here in Canada. I think that Telenet might want to go one step farther and not ask you to buy multiple accounts, but just bill a flat $1/hr after the first 30 hours. Otherwise you are going to have to guestimate your usage to the closest 30 hours and pre-subsribe for that amount. Also it will be a royal pain in the ass to have to change you dialing scripts after you exceed each 30 hour increment to use a new account number. Another alternative would be to introduce a different type of service (seeing as they are introducing one new service, a second shouldn't be that hard). Have an Extended PC Pursuit service. Charge $50/month plus $1/hr after the first 50 hours. Now, how about all you folks suggesting to Telenet in your messages to them that it would be nice if your northern neighbours could use PC Pursuit as well! We'd even pay the bills in $US. Now that we have free trade why shouldn't we get access to some of these neat services? -- Stuart.Lynne@wimsey.bc.ca {ubc-cs,uunet}!van-bc!sl Vancouver,BC,604-937-7532
brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (01/08/89)
I am amazed at all the people who seem to think that GTE is a non-profit organization duty-bound to find the nicest system for you. People say, Telenet should just charge $1/hour over 30 hours. Just like AT&T's Reach Out America always bills by the minute, right? Telenet is running a business. They are selling bulk service in 30 hour units. If you don't like it, go to another service, or start your own. If you really thing you could make more money than they do, they would be glad (assuming they trust you) to sell you their whole net at night for their current revenue figures, and let you resell it according to your "superior" scheme. People have to realize that unlimited use schemes are not, and never were there because the vendors want everybody to make unlimited use. They are there because it makes billing far easier and cheaper for both the customer and the company; because most people are small users and thus subsidize the heavy users and because in regulated areas, a monopoly phone company can make more money that way. But watch yourself. In many areas, local calling is "unlimited use." What if everybody just started making all-day-long local calls, running networks over them, replacing leased lines and setting up permanent intercoms. Or if they chained them together to make long distance calls or fake out FX service? I can tell you right away the unlimited use would disappear. Unlimited use service is an admistrative convenience that only lasts when it isn't abused. -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473