Hi Dave and list.
I cannot but agree
That's the way my o/wn phone company sage com is going. Just as a for instance it costs an
extra
$2.25 to have my phone number unpublished. Each feature costs five dollars to activate
then another 5 to have de-activated. Since I'm deaf and gotta use relay Texas I
don't believe I do pay for directory assistance, but that is perhapse only because relay calls
it for me. If I decided to have the number dialed for me then'd probably stick me for it.
Quite
a money making machine.
Perhaps we could start our o/wn phone company??
call it
vicug-bell???


Jack :)
Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit
makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.
 - James Buckham

On Sat, 22 May 2004, david poehlman wrote:

> Kelly and all,
>
> This is a ploy bcause once it gets going, they will either find or already
> realize that to maintain and expand the infrastructure, they'll have to up
> the charges.  They want the regulations to go away so they don't have to
> provide the services and they don't have to deal with the rules for
> competition in the market place.  I would not want to give up the hard
> fought for free directory assistance unless I had to pay more to get it
> which the telecom act now prohibits but which would be possible under the
> deragulatory scheme which defeats the purpose of having it in the first
> place.  Once they get going, you will have to pay for every little service
> and tweak.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kelly Pierce" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2004 8:06 AM
> Subject: FCC in a quandary over VoIP
>
>
> if the FCC were to loosen some of its rules, we could have $5 a month local
> phone service.  While not mentioned in the article, an FCC rule that does
> add an expense is that requiring local phone services to offer services be
> on par with the big wireline provider services, such as SBC, Verizon, and
> Qwest.  This includes paying to publish subscribers telephone numbers in a
> local directory and providing access to that directory to the blind, usually
> through free directory assistance.  for $5 a month local phone service,
> would people give up free directory assistance?
>
> for me it is difficult to answer this question because I have always had
> telephone service.  If I had a really low income and went without telephone
> service for long periods of time because of cost issues, the possibility of
> unlimited $5 a month local service would be a godsend.  While the directory
> may not be accessible, just having extraordinarily inexpensive phone service
> would be very useful compared to no phone service at all.
>
> Kelly
>
>
>
>
> Chicago Tribune
>
> May 22, 2004
>
>
>
>     FCC in a quandary over VoIP
>
>     Internet phone service is cheap, if it's not subject to access fees
>
>      by: Jon Van Tribune staff reporter
>
>
>     A former Ameritech executive believes he can deliver phone service
> through the Internet to low-income people for $5 a month.
>
>     Dwayne Goldsmith, now chief of Detroit-based Inflexion Communications
> Corp., and his bargain-phone scheme embody the promise and peril of
> Internet telephony. Most experts agree that the technology, called voice
> over Internet protocol, is far cheaper and more feature rich than regular
> phone service.
>
>     But the VoIP technology runs smack into a thicket of regulations, fees
> and taxes that dominate traditional phone service. If Inflexion's $5
> service were subject to these regulations and fees, the cost structure
> wouldn't work.
>
>     Many of those fees were established to promote universal phone service
> that helps the poor--now they could prevent public housing residents from
> getting phones, Goldsmith said.
>
>     "It doesn't make sense to collect all these dollars and then push them
> back to the very phone companies that failed to provide truly universal
> service," he said.
>
>     Inflexion has asked the Federal Communications Commission to exempt
> its service from the system of subsidized payments that characterizes
> traditional phone service.
>
>     So-called access fees typically paid by long-distance companies like
> AT&T Corp. to local phone companies like SBC Communications Inc. were
> instituted decades ago to keep local phone service rates low.
>
>     But Inflexion's ultralow rates won't be possible if it is subject to
> access fees, Goldsmith argues.
>
>     Goldsmith wants to supply high-speed Internet connections to densely
> occupied housing projects in Detroit, offering phone service as a
> Web-based application, much like e-mail. Residents who have computers
> could access the Internet from Inflexion's system, but others without
> computers would be supplied with phones to use Internet telephony.
>
>     Inflexion would avoid the expense of billing and metering the service
> by selling communications in bulk to landlords who could add $5 a month to
> rent to cover costs, he said.
>
>     FCC Chairman Michael Powell has called for "lightly regulated"
> Internet telephony, and Congress recently approved extending a tax
> moratorium on Internet services. But whether the FCC will grant
> Inflexion's plea to avoid traditional phone fees is unknown.
>
>     Last month the FCC unanimously turned down a request from AT&T Corp.
> that would exempt it from paying traditional access charges on calls that
> use VoIP technology.
>
>     "This is a landscape that's very treacherous and exciting," said David
> Roddy, managing director of the telecom practice at FTI Consulting Inc.
> "You're dealing with policy issues--not light regulation versus heavy. Do
> the states give up billions in revenue they get from taxing phone
> service?"
>
>     Rural firms wield clout
>
>     If access fees go uncollected, rural phone companies will face serious
> financial trouble, he said, and they have considerable clout with
> Congress.
>
>     David Siddall, a Washington lawyer who specializes in communications
> and a former FCC staffer, said that the agency is truly in a quandary over
> what to do with VoIP.
>
>     Neither Siddall nor Roddy expect action from the FCC until next year.
> In the absence of specific rulings, VoIP companies tend to be unregulated.
>
>     Vonage, a leading Internet phone provider with more than 100,000
> customers, for instance, pays no access fees.
>
>     "Right now VoIP is a small dribble and doesn't make much difference,"
> said Siddall. "But the FCC recognizes that as this continues, the current
> system will be harmed."
>
>     Roddy said that the telecom industry is headed for a "perfect storm,"
> led by VoIP's disruptive technology.
>
>     VoIP customers must have a broadband connection to make voice calls,
> and today most consumers get broadband either over a DSL phone line or a
> cable modem. But more choices are on the horizon.
>
>     Wireless broadband using a standard called WiMax should become
> available next year, and most electric utilities are experimenting with
> technology to bring broadband to their customers, Roddy said.
>
>     "We're about to see true competition to provide broadband, and VoIP is
> the key to the whole play," he said.
>
>     Internet telephony's economics are so attractive that the technology
> will spread no matter what regulators do, said Jim Hart, senior vice
> president with the Burwood Group Inc.
>
>     "Businesses are adopting this technology," Hart said. "It's ready for
> prime time. The bottom line is there."
>
>     Regulators have pushed for reducing access fees and their
> cross-service subsidies for years, and they have become less important for
> large carriers like SBC and Verizon Communications. But access fees are
> still a major part of the revenue flow to many rural phone carriers.
>
>     TDS plans market trials
>
>     An important carrier is Chicago-based Telephone and Data Systems Inc.,
> which serves more than 1 million wired phone customers, mostly in small
> towns and rural areas, through its TDS Telecom unit.
>
>     "We're certainly looking at VoIP," said David Wittwer, chief financial
> officer of TDS Telecom. "We plan to do a couple of small market trials to
> understand how we may offer it to our customers."
>
>     Industry groups are trying to build a consensus of how the existing
> system of intercarrier compensation should be revised, said Kevin Hess,
> TDS' vice president for regulatory affairs.
>
>     "Clearly, changes will be made," he said. "It cannot stay the way it's
> done today."
>
>     Inflexion's Goldsmith agrees. "We need to adjust regulation so that it
> matches the technological landscape," he said.
>
>
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VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html