*BSD News Article 42813


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From: mbarkah@teton.Mines.Colorado.EDU (Ade Barkah)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.powerpc,comp.sys.intel,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.sys5.r4,comp.unix.misc,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.development,comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: flat rates for Internet/phone (Re: X on dial-in)
Followup-To: comp.sys.powerpc,comp.sys.intel,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.sys5.r4,comp.unix.misc,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.development,comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.misc
Date: 23 Feb 1995 21:45:26 GMT
Organization: Colorado School of Mines - Test News Server
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Message-ID: <3iivlm$ejt@magma.Mines.Colorado.EDU>
References: <D3s19v.4M7@pe1chl.ampr.org> <hastyD4BEzu.Jx0@netcom.com> <root.793371940@c00037-5pa.eos.ncsu.edu> <D4DH09.BAo@pe1chl.ampr.org> <phrD4G1np.MoG@netcom.com>
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Paul Rubin (phr@netcom.com) wrote:

: >No, your current phone bill is based on the fact that you use it only
: >3% of the month.  When you would use it all the time, your bill would
: >go up.
: >
: >Boy, are all Americans so naive?

: Most parts of the US have flat rate monthly local service.
: Lots of people use their phones all the time (such as for
: 24 hour a day SLIP connections) and their bills don't go up.
: It really doesn't cost TPC any more to keep the connection up.

This is incorrect. The flat rate phone bill is based on the
fact that _most_ people will only use their phone for 3%
of the time (or whatever the real value is). It accounts that
some people will use it 100% of the time (say, for SLIP),
but it also accounts that other people will use it almost
0% of the time.

So he was correct, if people would use their phones all
the time (thereby increasing the usage average), then
your bills *would* go up, because it will cost the 
telephone company more.


-Ade Barkah
--
Head of Development
Renaissance Knowledge Systems
Englewood, Colorado