From: John K Clark <johnkc@well.sf.ca.us>
It seems that the Government of the USA has been interfering with the free market to reward AT&T , I don't know how much AT&T's support of the Clipper Chip had to do with it but I'm sure it didn't hurt. In the May 13 New York Times:
>The AT&T Corporation's winning bid for a $4 billion contract to >modernize Saudi Arabia's phone system ,WHICH HAD BEEN SUPPORTED >BY HEAVY CLINTON ADMINISTRATION LOBBYING , was hundreds of >millions of dollars higher than other bids [...] The huge-scale >deal, which was announced on Monday is the biggest >telecommunications contract in history.
I think it's important for company's to realize there is also a downside for supporting Clipper. As a start ,I don't see how any self respecting Cypherpunk or Extropian could use AT&T as their personal long distance carrier . AT&T 's not the only company in bed with the government over Clipper (INTEL) but it is the most visible and the easiest to boycott, MCI and Sprint do a fine job. If 5% of the Internet users quit AT&T it would make other companies think twice before they endorse Clipper.
I still have AT&T as a long distance carrier. I have contacted the marketing guys for the clipper phone repeatedly, it doesn't seem to be doing to well, they are desparate for sales leads. This is a subsidiary called AT&T Surety Communications, base in North Carolina. One has to wonder how much damage you can do to them by boycotting AT&T long distance. It would be much more interesting to provide more cost effective competition. One of the TSD-3600c costs $1050, plush the phone interface module. This is more than the $947 for a videophone! There may be a niche market in modifying clipper phones to cure the LEAF information leak as well. The single oddest thing about the announcement, was that they were talking about spending the equivalent of $25K for each new phone subscriber in Saudi Arabia, and still only doubling the number of phone subscribers. Where the heck does all that money go?