[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Access fees idea dropped for ISPs?
>Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 02:35:29 -0500 (EST)
>From: "James M. Cobb" <[email protected]>
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: DAVID AWAKES! 12 28 96
>
> Friend,
>
> 12 27 96 San Francisco Examiner distributes a newsstory
> headlined:
>
> INTERNET SERVICE COMPANIES WIN VICTORY
> WHEN FEDS DROP ACCESS FEES
>
>
> The story reports:
>
> The FCC is in the process of making sweeping changes
> to connection, or access, fees that could result in
> a huge drop in phone rates for residential and busi-
> ness customers.
>
>
> The FCC's counsel for new technology, Kevin Werbach, says
> that as part of that process:
>
> "The commission raised the specific question of wheth-
> er [ISPs] should pay access charges.... [The FCC] ten-
> tatively concluded that the answer is 'no'."
>
>
> That tentative conclusion tallies with FCC past practice:
>
> In 1983, the FCC exempted Internet providers from pay-
> ing the same kind of per-minute access charges that
> long-distance companies pay to connect to local cus-
> tomers.
>
>
> The story reports the Internet Access Coalition has:
>
> ...assiduously pressed the FCC for weeks to ensure
> that Internet users have access to a low, flat month-
> ly rate.
>
>
> Who are some of these IAC good guys?
>
> ...Intel, Apple Computer, Netscape Communications, A-
> merica Online, IBM, AT&T, Digital Equipment and Compaq
> Computer....
>
>
> The story reports that the FCC connection-fees process:
>
> ...to trim the $23.4 billion in annual fees that long-
> distance carriers pay local phone companies...is expec-
> ted to be formally approved in the spring following
> public hearings.
>
>
> We'll see what happens when the tentatives roll around!
>
> The tentatives?
>
> This latest FCC decision and the PROMISE of "a low, flat
> monthly rate" --maybe even for end-users.
>
>
>
> Cordially,
>
> Jim
>
>
>
> NOTE. The newsstory's URL:
>
> http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/info/122796
> /info3_20620.html
>
>
> Wire services contributed to the Examiner's story.
>
> This critical essay was composed 12 27 96.
>
Jim Bell
[email protected]