From: "Deranged Mutant" <WlkngOwl@unix.asb.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 1996 22:25:14 +0800
To: David Sternlight <david@sternlight.com>
Subject: Re: ABC News on internet telephony
Message-ID: <199607191718.NAA04083@unix.asb.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


ISPs have functioned better using flat monthly rates, and the biggies are like
AT&T are going in the same direction for internet access.  I don't 
see this as being 'counter-intuitive' at all.  The costs to the 
ISPs and telcos aren't really based on where you call or how long you 
are on anymore.

Big questions are how the main hubs for the internet are maintained 
(esp. when some of the big telcos maintain them... a conflict of 
interest, perhaps).  Will fees become too much that smaller ISPs are
put out of business, or that we'll start seeing ISPs merge?  (Remember
when there were mainly local cable companies?)

On 18 Jul 96 at 11:03, David Sternlight wrote:

[..]
> This is the rankest speculation on my part, but could some of the bigger,
> smarter phone company cum internet providers have done some serious
> analysis and concluded that we're moving away from distance-based rates for
> voice calls. Might they even have examined where we'll be in the next ten
> years (with ADSL, etc.) and decided that the network technology and simple
> market economics makes fixed charges per "line" more profitable to them
> than metered usage? Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part, but some of
> the bigger actors are starting to behave in a surprisingly
> counter-intuitive (based on the way we stereotype them) fashion on this
> topic.
 
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