Re: ISP phone ratio's and Interoffice trunkage for voice

[James Love <love@tap.org>]

  With data calls (including ISDN) from residential consumers there seem to
  be two sides to the pricing thing.  1st, what does it cost for the
  residential consumer to call, and 2nd, what does it cost for the ISP to
  recieve the call. 
  
  1.  If the RBOCs are built out so that more than 1 of 8 residential
  consumers can be connected at one time, and the ISP's are built out so
  that they can connect less than 1 of 8 residential consumers, the calls to
  ISP's don't cause (can't cause) a burden from the residential end.  Right? 
  
  2.  However, on the ISP end, they are using their lines much more 
  densely.  But they pay business rates, which are higher, and indeed, over 
  the company's incremental costs, probably even when used densely.  Since 
  the ISP business is new, and for right now adds to total traffic 
  (internet telephone is mostly a toy at this point), interoffice trunkage 
  is way cheaper than it was 5 years ago..., where's the harm?
  
  3.  Moreover, since the RBOCs seem to think that residential second lines
  are very profitable (how else do you explain the promotions for
  residential second lines), and a high percentage of modem calls are made
  from second lines, it is not unreasonable to think that the ISP is
  contributing to demand for products which are making positive 
  contributions to the joint costs, from the residential end. 
  
  4.  The RBOCs now see themselves as competitors to the independent ISP's, 
  and want to raise their costs as much as they can.  When the RBOC owned 
  ISP pays for its phones, it's just moving money from one pocket to another.
  
  
  
     jamie
  
  
  On Fri, 12 Jul 1996, Marty Tennant wrote:
     [snip]
  > What if the business has an automatic call distributor and lots of agents 
  > answering voice calls from local exchange users?  This would create a 
  > high holding time situation, on the trunks and on interoffice trunks.  
  > Does the LEC come begging for relief?  No, but they do get the pbx trunk 
  > rate, typically twice the single line business customer rate.  These 
  > rates help pay for the increased network impact.
  > 
  > Do ISP's pay these rates?  I don't know.
  > 
  > These higher rates have subsidized universal service for many years, and 
  > shown LEC's great profit margins.
  > 
  > Is this the problem or is it part of the continuing solution for 
  > universal service funding?
  > 
  > Marty Tennant
  > 
  > 
  > 
  > Please share more with the group on this.  I know that this is an issue 
  > Hundt is looking at.
  > 
  > Marty Tennant
  > 
  > 
  > 
  
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  James Love / love@tap.org / P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
  Voice: 202/387-8030; Fax 202/234-5176
  Center for Study of Responsive Law
     Consumer Project on Technology; http://www.essential.org/cpt
     Taxpayer Assets Project; http://www.tap.org
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~