Re: A DOV technical question

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

  At 12:28 PM 11/4/96 -0500, Fred R. Goldstein wrote:
  >True.  Ameritech's the same way.  Per-call charges with no timing are
  >counterproductive when duration's the issue.  These go back a *long* way.
  >They're "message unit" tariffs dating back to the pre-dial days, when the
  >operator punched a ticket for each local call.  On stepper gear (which NYC
  >never had, though Panel may have had the same problem), primary-local (one
  >message unit) calls were hard to time.  NYNEX/MA got permission to adopt
  >"single message rate timing" (SMRT) in the late '70s, but many steppers kept
  >untimed 1MU calls because it was too costly to upgrade.
  
  Fascinating (about the genesis of per-call charges with no timing)...
  
  >Trouble is, any alternative pricing raises other issues.  Telcos just don't
  >like flat rates (well NYNEX doesn't!).
  
  Understood...but jeez; I'd readily move to *measured* service if I were
  only paying for (cumulative) connect time, without these dial-up penalties
  added on top...!
  
  
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