Rumors that we've up-and-moved, trading the salt flats of Redwood City for a bird's-eye view of the San Mateo foothills, are true. In the process, we've taken on a new address and phone number; effective immediately, you can contact us at:
I'd also like to take a minute to refute the scurrilous scuttlebutt that the sole motivation for the change was simply to get me to unclutter my office. Neatness, I'm the first to say, counts.
Last month, I reported on the Baby Bells' flings at getting into the online information service business. The ink was hardly dry before Southwestern Bell, one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies, began trying to wring more money from Missouri BBS operators.
At issue is that the RBOCs get to define your use of a public utility. If you say your use of the phone line is personal and the RBOC says it's business, it's business--and you'll start paying business rates that are three to four times higher than residential charges. To this end, Southwestern Bell has determined that every BBS is a business--even if it's a free service operated by an individual as a hobby--and subject to the higher rates. The paranoid among us might say that by upping charges for services the RBOCs control, and on which BBSs depend, the Baby Bells can effectively force perceived competitors (BBSs in this case) to pull their own plug.
I've no quibble over paying for the amount of electricity, water, or phone-access time I use (although I may not like the rates). But when I pay for it, it's mine to use as I want, including running a residential BBS on a residential phone line. (My use must be within reason, of course. A while back, a lady in my neighborhood was pumping thousands of gallons of water daily onto her stamp-size lawn, destroying sidewalks, streets, and the foundations of nearby houses. In this case, the utility company was correct in putting restrictors on her input lines--her right to unlimited water use ended at her neighbor's crumbling home. But then, she was a retired school teacher and we all know how a lifetime of corralling other people's kids can alter one's worldview.)
How do RBOCs know whether it's voice or data that's traveling over your phone lines? They don't. However, if you have multiple residential phone lines (say, four or five) at a single address, they'll assume you're using them for BBS purposes. Or if you advertise that you're running a BBS (free or otherwise), their fingers will do the walking right to your wallet. In any case, you'll have to cough up special business deposits and start paying business rates.
There's another insect in the ointment, one that Southwestern Bell calls "unrelated." In the past, businesses that transmitted data could pay higher-than-business rates for "Information Terminal Services" that provided access to special "clean" data transmission lines. But as standard lines have been upgraded and the need to transmit data has increased, businesses have shunned these services, connecting faxes and modems to the less-expensive, business-rate phone lines. To make this legitimate, at about the same time the courts gave RBOCs permission to launch online services, Southwestern Bell petitioned the Missouri Public Services Commission to in effect phase out terminal services. It isn't the sentiment behind this petition that's bothersome, it's the wording. The petition appears to state that any use of the phone lines for data transmission purposes is subject to business rates. Chew on that the next time you're at home and dial up CompuServe or send a fax.
I mentioned last month that CompuServe and other services seem blase about the possibility of RBOC competition. If their customers have to start paying higher access rates because residential lines are carrying data, I guarantee you that online connect times will drop.
I'll continue to follow this tangled ball of twine as it unwinds, but I'd also recommend you keep in touch with the folks at Boardwatch, a BBS-focused magazine out of Loveland, Colorado that specializes in these issues.
In these emerging rate battles, BBSs have been chosen as the easiest of all possible targets because there are BBSs that charge fees and function as a business. But the timing of the BBS attacks, tariff revision request, and RBOC online service announcements garbles the message, generating ominous overtones for anyone who uses the phone line for data transmission.
For the pious, there is a loophole. One type of business office that has residential status is a pastor's study in a church. If you get yourself ordained and declare your BBS room a sanctuary, you just might be eligible for residential rates. In doing so, you'll have my blessing, if not Southwestern Bell's.
Copyright © 1992, Dr. Dobb's JournalDr. Dobb's Journal Phone: 415-358-9500
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