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Every state is different »
This is a sub-selection from States rights
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks to Skippy25

Member

to Skippy25

Re: States rights

said by Skippy25:

You paid your phone bill which allowed you to use a modem to connect to the ISP of YOUR choice to connect to the internet.

Not exactly.

Your choices were limited to those ISPs who had a local access number, unless you intended to pay per minute long distance rates to be online.

Maybe that doesn't mean anything to an urbanite, but out in the sticks we were lucky to have one or two ISPs with a local number. Many locations had no local access number until the end of the 90s.
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

TBBroadband

Member

Not totally companies such as MCI/UUTNet and others created massive dial-in banks for ISPs to "rent" to those ISPs that wanted local numbers. How do you think AOL became national so quick. Also Juno/NetZero still use those databanks.
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks

Member

AOL never got a local access number for the town I grew up in. To the best of my knowledge Juno/NetZero still don't have one. We had no toll free online option until a local company got off the ground in 1996. Sidney New York (population 5,700) is not on MCI's radar, not then, nor now. That area is still served by Frontier for dial-up (and DSL) services, but that's it.

Incidentally, back in the day Frontier found a way to bone all the local ISPs when they decided to get into the business. They had been allowing them to use call forwarding to artificially expand their footprints, i.e., you call forward from 607-334 (Norwich) to 607-967 (Bainbridge) where your modems are actually located.

Once Frontier decided to get into the ISP business they filed a rate change request with the PSC, turning this type of call forwarding service into a per-minute charge. Nobody caught it in time, the rate change was approved, and most of the local ISPs were bankrupted in short order. Business is cruel....
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

TBBroadband

Member

If that area was not covered by MCI as a POP then there was more of an issue. As MCI now VZ Business as POPs in villages of maybe 20-100 people. Level3 does as well.

And that issue with Call forwarding was always billed like that in most areas and was billed like that from Ameritech in early 2000s.
Every state is different »
This is a sub-selection from States rights