Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Re: Here we go re internet telephones
From: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 21:50:24 -0400
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 18:44:30 -0700 (PDT) From: Hal Varian <hal () alfred sims berkeley edu> To: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu> On Sun, 11 Aug 1996, Dave Farber wrote:
"Phone Service Via the Internet May Slash Rates." ...Customers would merely call a central number, then dial their long-distance numbers. The call is carried on the Internet, then put back onto the local phone system at its destination. The company plans to charge 5 to 8 cents per minute for all domestic U.S. calls, which represents a 50 to 75 percent discount off most domestic long-distance rates.
Long distance carriers currently pay the local carriers a local access fee which is about 40% of the price of a long-distance call. Internet service providers do not pay this local accesss charge since they are classified as a "value added service". It appears that these guys hope to make money off of this differential treatment of Internet providers and long-distance carriers. My guess is that this kind of thing will hasten the moves to impost local access charges on Internet providers. (See http://www.cedmagazine.com/feb96/currents.html for a reasonably accurate review of the issues involved.) Hal Varian, Dean voice: 510-642-9980 SIMS, 102 South Hall fax: 510-642-5814 University of California hal () sims berkeley edu Berkeley, CA 94720-4600 http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~hal
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- IP: Re: Here we go re internet telephones Dave Farber (Aug 11)
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- IP: Re: Here we go re internet telephones Dave Farber (Aug 12)