Re: PHONE PRIVACY: real-time billing with digital postage

[Brad Huntting <huntting@glarp.com>]

> We take for granted that long distance companies must record who 
> called whom, and when, in order to tally the bill.  The 900 redialer 
> doesn't obviate this; it simply adds an expensive level of
> indirection.  Could not the need for such records be eliminated by 
> real-time payment of digital postage?

Better yet, use an Internet based phone system.  The phone companies
draconian policies of billing for distance, time, and social standing
are antiquated With the Internets method of billing for maximum
usable bandwidth or connect time, it costs the same to send e-mail
to another continent or just accross town costs the same.  Distance
based billing isolates people by preventing them from communicating
with anyone but their neighbors.  Internet style billing serves to
create a sense of global unity limited more by language and access
to technologie instead of geographical or political boundaries.

A side effect of simplified billing and connectionless systems is
that no records are kept of who contacted whom.  In fact, it would be
difficult even to make such records w/o having a specific target.


brad