Re: [Leica] OT Phone Bills

["Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@atkielski.com>]

From: Robert G. Stevens <robsteve@hfx.andara.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 1999 01:43
Subject: Re: [Leica] OT Phone Bills


> Who uses a phone anymore?

People in areas not served by ADSL.

> I am on a cable modem ( actuall a cisco cable router) that stays
> connected twenty-four hours a day.

Do you get guaranteed bandwidth over this connection?

> We had the phone company ADSL modems two or
> three years ago and were the first city in
> North America to have them in widespread use.

So why did you select cable instead of ADSL?  ADSL is the superior technology.

> It must be all the modern Northern Telecom (a Canadian
> Company) phones switches that have been installed in
> the past few years, replacing older units.

Here in France, everything travels over fiber now.  However, prices are still
high, and service is still poor, because telephone service is still a monopoly
to a large extent.

Actually, France Télécom wanted to introduce ADSL a few months ago here in
Paris, but the government stopped it, because other operators complained that
they had not had time to catch up.  I guess the operators are considered more
important than the customers.

> Actually, what most people don't realize is that for Europeans,
> every call is a toll call, even the one to their next door neighbor.
> That is why we get complaints about the amount of traffic on this
> list from Europeans.

I live in Europe, and I pay for every call, but I don't recall ever complaining
about the traffic on this list.

  -- Anthony