At 12:26 AM 3/6/96 -0500, "Declan B. McCullagh" <declan+@CMU.EDU> wrote:

WASHINGTON, March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The America's Carriers Telecommunication Association (ACTA), a trade association of competitive, long distance carriers today petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to stop companies from selling software and hardware products that enable use of the Internet to voice long distance services. .... CONTACT: Charles H. Helein, general counsel, 703-714-1301, or Jennifer Durst- Jarrell, executive director, 407-332-9382, both of America's Carriers Telecommunication Association

Their complaint was that Internet time, at $2/hour, is 3.3 cents/minute, far cheaper than the 22 cents/minute many of them are charging. (The real price is, of course, double that, 6.6cents, because both ends of the connection need Internet connections.) I assume they're hoping that the FCC won't know that the "hardware and software products" are the sound cards that almost every new PC sells with and software ranging from $50 down to free, and offers encryption which they don't, as well as voice quality ranging from worse to much worse to better. Some of the software works over the Internet, some chooses to get better voice quality over direct modem connections (which use their services.) They're also sleazing over the issue that many businesses are using low-bit-rate voice on their private networks to squeeze more voice calls into the networks they buy at bulk rates, most of which are billed at rather less that 22 cents/minute. If you're fitting four 16kbps calls into the 64kbps standard voice circuit, and you're paying 12 cents/minute, that's 3 cents/minute/call. And _really_ big bulk-buying customers are paying a lot less than 22 cents - I read in the papers that the Federal Telephone System is under 5 cents/minute. Bill Stewart P.S. Yes, I work for one of their competitors, though I'm not in the voice business, and not speaking for my employer. Aside from being a concerned citizen, and a voice telephone service customer who objects to companies that try to use the government to stomp their competitors instead of competing against them freely, I'm also an Internet user. Yes, the Internet is providing lots of new and exciting communications possibilities, and if you're worried that people are going to use the Internet for low-cost un-wiretappable encrypted phone calls that sound worse than ham radio and allow folks in third-world countries to better afford communications, go into the Internet business yourself. #-- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com, +1-415-442-2215 pager 408-787-1281 #