Article 6073 of comp.dcom.telecom.tech: Path: mri-gw!psinntp!psinntp!cmcl2!panix!news.mathworks.com!udel!gatech!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!news.cic.net!condor.ic.net!news From: pcr@ic.net (phil reed) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom.tech Subject: Re: NEW: Internet Phone - Free Telephone Calls Over The Internet Date: 9 Mar 1995 12:39:45 GMT Organization: Black Cat Brewery Lines: 39 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <3jmsuh$doj@condor.ic.net> References: ,<3jf5i5$bah@owen.mitel.com> <1995Mar6.160928.6520@nb.rockwell.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 152.160.40.20 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.93.11 In article <1995Mar6.160928.6520@nb.rockwell.com>, manfredi@engr04.comsys.rockwell.com says... > >In article <3jf5i5$bah@owen.mitel.com>, meier@software.mitel.com (Rolf Meier) wr >ites: >>Consider the following: >> >>1) The Internet has been heavily susidized by taxpayers. > >Indeed. And wasn't it in the news that the govt would be backing out of >the heavy subsidies in the next few years? I think that not only would >voice over the Internet not be free for long, but nothing will. I wonder >what that will mean and how individuals or corporations will be charged >for Internet use? The Internet consists of data circuits and routers. Data circuits are almost all flat rate these days, and routers are capital equipment. So, all an internet provider really has to do is provide data circuits to routers, and stand back. Charge each user the flat rate (marked up appropriately), plus a fraction of the cost of running the routers, and a fraction of the cost of running a line to another provider's router. *POOF* Internet. There is no incremental cost for more or less data. If the user wants more bandwidth, they pay a larger flat rate for a bigger data circuit. Sure, the infrastructure cost goes up, so you factor that into the flat rate. I imagine the phone companies want to charge by the byte or something. (Telenet charged by the kilobyte for ages.) But the market has passed those charge rates by long ago, and I don't think the customers will stand to go back. All it takes is one company to continue offering a flat rate service, and they all will have to. > >Bert >manfredi@engr05.comsys.rockwell.com > -- ...phil