Re: Internet vs. Telephone company

[! Drive <drink () aa net>]

> An interesting article was posted by the Seattle Times yesterday, it's at:
>
> http://www.seattletimes.com/topstories/browse/html97/inet_013097.html
>
> This was the Jan 30, 1997 issue. In it, Diedtra Henderson writes:
>
> "US West serves 2.2 million customers in Washington state and spent $340
> million improving its phone system here last year, a spokesman said. The
> company blames a meteoric rise in Internet use for its phone-service woes.
> [SNIP] 
> "For the next five years we are in big trouble. There is no clear,
> intelligent way to expand the phone system to handle the Internet
> demands," said Lu, who expects metered Internet access in the future - in
> other words, you pay by the hour. "
>
> My question is:  Have other people heard of similar attempts by the
> telephone companies to have "metered Internet access"?  It seems they
> would need a hardware level signal analyzer on their switching equipment
> to differentiate between voice/data.  
        Who is to say that my data call is actually connecting to the
        Internet?

> Does anyone know by what means such a technology could be implemented?  
> What would be the legal ramifications? 
>
> Also do people agree with the claims that our local lack of available
> phone lines is due to Internet usage or just to lack of foresight in
> growth management decisions?
        I would say an intential lack of foresight in order to increase charges
        for higher profits.
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