Provider credibility - does it matter? was Re: Inter-provider relations

Fri Oct 25 17:52:37 UTC 1996

> I would say that if transatlantic lines are mostly ordered and paid for by
> European companies that you are probably correct. But part of the reason
> is that European government run PTT's charge horrendously high rates for
> international circuits.

Though the US 1/2 circuit is slightly cheaper than (say) the UK or SE one,
(neither of which have government owned monopolies) they are the same order
of magnitude. European nations with state-owned monopolies charge 30-50%
more. Still the same order of magnitude. It has been well argued that all
telcos have some form of protectionist pricing on large data circuits
(for Internet or anything else) as they have a profitable International
voice business to protect.

Alex Bligh
Xara Networks