Another Point Of View (Round 2)

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

  Fred R. Goldstein wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:
  
   FRG> Take, for instance, intra-LATA toll.  This has been
   FRG> preposterously overpriced (often 10x cost) for a long time. 
   FRG> Then as states began to authorize competition, the prices
   FRG> fell precipitously.  Bell South used to get over 50c/minute
   FRG> on some routes! Now, with competition, some RBOCs have
   FRG> literally abolished intra-LATA tolls. Bell South's
   FRG> Miami-LATA tariff now allows any intra-LATA call for 25
   FRG> cents untimed. This doesn't leave much room for competition.
  
  You hardly have to go as far as BellSouth to find an example of this.  Here in
  single-LATA Rhode Island, a whole state 30 miles wide by 50 miles long, we had
  intra-state tolls reaching 51 cents per minute in some cases a few years ago. 
  We had towns where some constituents had to pay a toll to call their town
  council member.  We also had several cases of non-reciprocity, where calling in
  one direction would invoke a toll and calling in the other direction on the
  same path would be free.  MCI began offerring intra-state toll calls at 11
  cents for the first minute and 7 cents for each additional minute.  NYNEX
  immediately dropped their rates by almost half, although they were still more
  expensive than MCI.  NYNEX finally threw in the towel a couple of months ago
  and introduced unlimited calling anywhere in the state for $25 per month.
  
   FRG> I'm not saying I'm *opposed* to lower, if compensatory,
   FRG> rates.  Just that the telcos hold rates high *until* there
   FRG> is a real chance of competition, then undercut them in order
   FRG> to preserve their monopoly.  (An unprofitable monopoly is
   FRG> better than no monopoly at all, I guess.)
  
  What is most galling is that the telephones companies claim for years that such
  low rates would bankrupt them, and then suddenly they manage to do it once
  someone else does it for less.
   
  -- Mike