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From: Comp2002@jk-o.demon.co.uk
Newsgroups: demon.ip.support,demon.tech.unix,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Batch FTP and Web Pages
Date: Tue, 02 Jul 96 15:41:24 GMT
Lines: 49
Message-ID: <836322084snz@jk-o.demon.co.uk>
References: <31D4AA3A.BC0@www.play-hookey.com> <4r71bs$bpt@newsgate.duke.edu>
<Snews.960701.180806.chris.7414@keris.demon.co.uk>
<31D87436.7C7F@www.play-hookey.com> <4rb83u$5gd@avondale.demon.co.uk>
Reply-To: Comp2002@jk-o.demon.co.uk
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In article <4rb83u$5gd@avondale.demon.co.uk>
jfhall@avondale.demon.co.uk "John F Hall" writes:
> If you're going to compare US and UK tariffs compare *all* of them. The
> UK doesn't come out too bad. Sure we pay for local calls - the standard
> charge is 4p per min in business hours, 1.7p per min on weekday
> evenings, 1p per min on Saturdays and Sundays, but I pay 25% less for my
> ISP calls - I pay ukl 2.00 per month for a 15% discount on all calls and
> can nominate the 5 most used numbers for an additional 10%. But our
> local areas are *large*, all being more than one area code and extending
> to adjacent towns - from Newcastle my local area includes Newcastle,
> Gateshead, Washington, Sunderland, Durham, Ashington, Blyth, Consett,
> Cramlington, Morpeth, and all in between, the whole of London is a
> single local area that extends to a few neighbouring towns. (They may
> not be as large in *area*, except for London, but don't forget the
> vastly higher population density in the UK.) Except for the small
> "regional" ring around each local area, non-local calls are "national"
> and the charge doesn't depend on distance. Don't forget to take account
> of the standing charges - a lot less in the UK.
It's immaterial how small or large your local area is as long as you
can connect to your Internet provider within that area!
I conducted a worldwide survey for a mailing list last year, and was
surprised to find that only in a couple of European countries was
there an hourly telephone charge. True, some would pay an hourly
charge to their Inet provider instead, but it would appear that the
normal thing in f.ex. the US is to operate a two- or three-tier pricing
structure allowing for free connection time as long as your monthly
subcription fee is in the higher brackets!
> Finally without local phone charging Demon would have been unable to
> offer untimed flat fee local service. They pioneered this and have
> forced all the other ISPs to follow - Compuserve has at last caught up
> and are scheduled to offer 28800 service as a local call anywhere in the
> UK later this month, though still only for 5 hours a month above which
> one pays them an hourly rate.
24-hour connection is something which perhaps the cable companies will
be able to offer to the majority of us fairly soon. It could be that
Demon will have to survive through offering their expertise to these
cable companies rather than through their current 50,000 strong customer
base, which could smoulder over as little as 18 months!?
--
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
"A fossil is an extinct animal. The older it is, the more extinct it is."