ISP phone ratio's and Interoffice trunkage for voice

[mikebw@bilow.bilow.uu.ids.net (Mike Bilow)]

  Fred R. Goldstein wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:
  
   FRG> It gets sticker in the common case wherein the resi subscriber 
   FRG> gets flat rate and the business customer (including the ISP) 
   FRG> pays measured rates.
  
  In practice, however, a measured service POTS business line (1MB) costs more
  for the basic usage charge than a flat rate POTS residential line (1UR).  In
  RI, which is NYNEX territory, the base rates are somewhere on the order of
  $32-35 for 1MB and $14-18 for 1UR.  A measured service POTS residential line
  (1MR), for which there is almost no demand, is about $6-8.
  
   FRG> See above.  ISP business rates are often quite low, if
   FRG> they're based on measured usage and the ISP is incoming
   FRG> only.  That in fact is how it works with Bell Atlantic, with
   FRG> some of the country's cheapest ISDN PRI (if they ever
   FRG> deliver it to you).  It does cover incremental costs IF you
   FRG> attribute usage costs to the caller.  Thus indeed no harm,
   FRG> unless they can't recover from the caller in any way, shape,
   FRG> or form, and if that's the case they have other problems.
  
  ISP pricing is a much more complicated issue.  For one thing, all ISPs of any
  size are not running two-conductor copper to the local CO for each line, nor
  are they paying at the rates which would apply if they did.  The largest local
  ISP here has about 100 incoming lines and a fiber link that drops directly into
  his machine room.  Although these lines are functionally analog POTS, he is
  paying Centrex rates.  The fiber terminus has a NYNEX lock and seal on it, and
  the fiber link is the responsibility, both technically and financially, of
  NYNEX rather than the ISP.  From a rate and regulatory point of view, the fiber
  link is simply the mechanism by which NYNEX opted to deliver the lines.
   
  -- Mike