competition as !NTERACT will probably charge prices below what the=20=
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.
>No, I don't think you fell off the turnip truck yesterday, but =
who knows more about telephony your ISP or the men and=20
>women who used to design, install, test, turn-up, etc, etc who =
work for the unregulated entities??
>This is kind of like saying AOL, MSN, Netcom, etc is out to ruin =
all of the ISP's because they are a big company and >can operate =
at a loss for a longer time...this is what you are saying isn't =
it?
>The only unregulated work I do is on CPE (router configs and =
such). I have no contact with any !NTERACT customer,=20
>I work on the regulated side of the business
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=20
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=20
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.
>I think it's time ISP's get real and buy your OWN switches, since =
obviously they are a dime a dozen and the telco can=20
>just slap them in on a whim!!!!=20
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?
>What do you mean by dial up customers? I only deal with customers =
of high speed data communications, specifically
>frame relay, cell relay, and transparent lan service.
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.
>I know for a fact that the RBOC's don't want to crush the ISP's. =
The internet side of the RBOC is TOTALLY separate from=20
>the regulated entities. If bell atlantic allows it's isp business =
to co-locate, you can too!! My ISP (not !nteract by the way)=20
>looked into co-location, but found it to be prohibitive. The only =
people I have seen co-located are IXC's.
>If you are an ISP, you are an enhanced service provider and every =
telephone consumer is subsidizing your low rates for
>measured service. As a model, the average ISP is using the public =
switched telephone network in a way in which it was=20
>never designed to be used. Look into some of the old bellcore =
documents about how some of this stuff is implemented a
>and you will see where the problem lies.=20
>Kyle Platts
>CSS-Tech
>!NTERPRISE Networking Services