The Great Exchange

Stephen Sprunk sprunk at paranet.com
Fri May 29 15:39:54 UTC 1998


Maybe some telcos, but not all...

When SWBell (sorry, "SBC") bought PacBell, I remember reading that
SWBell was the "most profitable of the Baby Bells."  So, considering
SWBell's buying craze and the aforementioned statement, one could
reasonably assume that SWBell has a competitive business plan.  Let's
examine SWBell's local POTS offerrings:

. Flat rate per month, large local calling area

In Houston, my local calling area (for a *normal* phone line) was over
75 miles in diameter.  This was for $17/mo.  Dallas has a similar
calling area.  There is no charge of any kind for local calls.

. Flat rate per month, bigger local calling area

In Dallas, I can subscribe to a "metro line", which adds the entire
Ft. Worth calling area to my already large Dallas calling area.  This
is for a mere $8/mo, and works both ways (people in Ft. Worth can call
me local too).

. Flat rate per month, massive local calling area

In either city, I also have the option of getting "local plus"
service, which gives me a local calling area of about 1/4 of Texas,
which is a staggering thought (for POTS service).  This is for around
$25/mo over the regular rate.

And let's not forget the cell/PCS carriers, which charge no long
distance intra-state, and some are no longer charging inter-state
either.  In fact, my PCS phone is so cheap (for ALL calls), I am on the
verge of cancelling my POTS line.

Then again, some of you don't have the good sense to live in Texas :)

Stephen


Sez Tim Salo:
>
> It should also be noted that the phone companies have trying to eliminate
> unmetered (on the basis of time) local phone service. I believe that there
> are fewer and fewer areas with unmetered (based on time) local phone service.
> 
> So, I think a closer examination of your example may yield a different
> result.
> 


-- 
Stephen Sprunk, KD5DWP   "Oops."             Email: sprunk at paranet.com
Sprint Paranet             -Albert Einstein  ICBM:  33.00151N 96.82326W



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