Re: SWBT Oklahoma ISDN tariff application

[Michael Philip Kaufman <mpk@acm.org>]

  At 12:27 AM 6/14/96 -0400, Fred R. Goldstein wrote:
  >    so we residential users all use Data Over Voice bearers instead.
  >It's a disgusting hack, of course, but it is flat rate, and it works.
  
  Best bet in NYC, too.  But we still have per-call charges here (@ 10.6 cents
  per B-channel)...
  
  ...which, in fact, is a difficult idiosyncrasy of the NY tariff:  It's hard
  to argue against nailed-up lines, because unless you're *sure* of your usage
  patterns, you can get hit (far) worse by constant call set-ups and
  tear-downs.  Among other things, this makes ISDN routers' "dynamic bandwidth
  allocation" features -- where one or both B-channels are brought up and down
  as needed, according to traffic -- all but useless from a tariff standpoint.
  
  It's really nonsensical -- particularly if NYNEX truly wants to discourage
  nail-ups -- because given ISDN's rapid call set-up times, one *can*
  configure these routers to bring connections up and down "on demand" quite
  seamlessly (i.e., with no apparent loss of performance for the user).
  
  >Various sources inside NYNEX and out tell me that they're preparing to file
  >a new tariff by early summer.
  ...
  >                                              Voice and data usage will
  >both be measured ONLY.
  
  Jeez!  I'd heard this once before -- right around the announcement of the
  merger -- but hoped it wasn't true...
  
  ...something *must* be done!
  
  >"Value" is a loaded word in the telephone biz!
  
  Yes...or in *any* pricing discussion.  (Take CPUs, for example...)
  
  >So we will probably need to intervene.  I have some ideas for what the
  >winning arguments could be, and may post them when I get a chance.  While
  >this is of most immediate interest to MA readers, I think the Mass. DPU
  >decision will reverberate elsewhere, just as a few other state cases 
  >recently have.  Can we preserve the closest thing to a cost-based ISDN
  >tariff in the country?
  
  Count us New Yorkers in...
  
  >          Will we get the shaft?
  
  Well...if not, it certainly won't be for lack of trying!
  
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