> What you have just described above is blatantly illegal.
>
> I am in a unique position as I work for an RBOC on the "regulated"
> side of the business, but I can also do "unregulated" work. Our
> internet access company, !NTERACT, purchases their products (phone
> lines, PRI, BRI, Frame Relay, point to point, et all) from U S WEST
> at the same price and conditions as anyone else does. This is how it
> has to be. !NTERACT is the "unregulated" side of our business. This
> means they play by the same rules as everyone else.
>
> In fact, !NTERACT is NOT co-located in the cities where they offer
> service. They are in buildings just like some of you are that are on
> this list. They have the same hurdles to jump through when getting
> facilities as you do. They do not receive any favorable treatment
> whatsoever.
>
> Please do not think that the RBOC's internet offerings are in any
> way treated better than ISP's. Our organization is very careful to
> make sure that everyone is treated fairly. We are also very happy to
> be working with many of the fine men and women associated in the
> internet industry and strive to provide the highest quality product
> with the best pricing we can. Remeber, !NTERACT pays the same price
> for their T1's as you do.
Do you think we fell off the turnip truck yesterday? !NTERACT may pay the
same as other ISP's but it can afford to operate at a loss for a long
time as long as US West makes money overall. This is still unfair
competition as !NTERACT will probably charge prices below what the
connection costs them and lose alot of money in the process. But US West
will make alot of money charging smaller ISPs out of business that
will more than pay for the !NTERACT losses. Then when we are gone, and
the phone companies go back to being virtual monopolies in internet as
well as dial-up then prices to the consumer will go up.
Why should we have to pay for the cost of RBOC's system upgrades solely
because we are creating more business for the phone company? Phone
companies are posting record profits. Upgrading facilities are part
of the cost of doing business. ISP's don't cry to the consumer that
they are making them buy new equipment because the demand is so high.
There are two ends of the line causing this "overloading of switches",
the other end is the consumer. Do phone companies have the guts to
raise rates to everyone involved? No, they say the ISP is causing more
lines to be active and average call lengths to be longer. Do they think
that ISP's are holding guns to the heads of their customers? We did
not create this demand any more than they did. They want us
to either pass along the higher rates (thus we become the bad guys) or
quietly go out of business. I think it is time that RBOCs stop whining and
suck it up and get new switches/equipment. Or get out of the way and
allow us to connect our switches directly to the long haul providers.
Here in Bell Atlantic land, the officials have stated "Oh, no these
are two entirely separate entities. Bell Atlantic Telephone and
Bell Atlantic Internet. There is no unfair competition because the
right hand does not know what the left hand is doing." Hmmm, then
why is it here that Bell Internet is the ONLY ISP allowed to co-locate
their equipment in Bell Atlantic CO's? (This may be changing). US
West does not seem to be immune to this as you admit that apparently
you work for both sides of the house. Hmmm... If you were talking to
US West dialup customers and you had to recommend an ISP, it would
be...let me guess !NTERACT?
Plain and simple, its all about money. The RBOCs want to force us out
of the business regardless of the consequences (higher costs and poor
service) to the customer. We bought these high capacity circuits and
dialup lines at face value. The telco's knew what we were doing, we
didn't conceal anything about the purpose of these lines. My dialup lines
do not differ in any way from an normal business line (other than number
of lines). What about other enhanced service providers like
dial-on-demand fax services and other users of large numbers of lines like
telemarketing firms. Will they have to pay 3 cents/minute as well?
PacBell for instance sold hundreds of thousands of phone lines in the
process of establishing the Internet infrastructure of their area as
well as hundreds of high capacity circuits. Where did that money go?
Obviously not into new switches, and we are to blame for the "brownouts"
they are currently experiencing.