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grumpygeek
join:2004-12-14
Houston, TX
| reply to DaveNJ
Re: Old Story, new Technology
It really isn't relevant what it costs to provide. If you want to start your own phone company, you can give it away for free. (And you'll get a lot of customers like myself).
I think it costs you nothing to do an extra hour of work each day - I mean, really, what does it cost you? So, you should do that work for free. | |
Fatal Vector
@aol.com
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Just like it cost them nothing to provide touch tone service, with the switch actually set up to prefer touch tone, but they still raped you for $2-3 per month for it untill they were basically forced to stop fleecing customers for it. The telcos problem is that they have been pulling such ripoffs for so long that they cant think any other way. It doesn't cost them anything to use 20 year old lines that have long been amortized, and all the "features" are provided by computer.
I'm sure there are basic costs like power and maintenance, however, these are business expenses which they likely write off to a large extent. Why should the customers be fleeced for outrageous fees for every individual service the computer can provide? Just because "they can" doesn't make it right. They have just been getting away with it for so long generating that cash cow that they cant concieve of anything else. It's their business model. This has a lot to do with why many people are migrating to cellphones as their promary line.
However, this does not mean you are getting anything at "no extra cost" with a cellphone either You are surely paying for everything you get as part of the monthly charge, no matter if you use it or not. Why do you think your minutes are limited, with high charges for each minute above what you are allowed, billed with computer accuracy? Because many subscribers go over their alloted "anytime" minutes on a regular basis and since SBC, Verizon, etc own the major cell providers, you are getting screwed no matter what you do. It does not "cost" them $30 per subscriber, per month to provide service that is, essentially, computer driven and managed over their own private network. The only real cost is for power and for repairs/maintenance when needed. This is why the profits are so high. | |
fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| So, let's have the government take over this, run it at a break even and just remove the ability for companies to generate profits all together. Where do you get the right to say what the service is worth? You have options, take them!
Rather, what I hear is "becuse Vonage does it, I want SBC to do it too!" You are a price leach then! Support Vonage and like like if you want that price. Don't expect because Voip provider are pricing in your range that SBD has to or must. With out customers, the whole competition idea is moot as the competition will go out of business. You want OTHERS to support cheaper VOIP so you can have cheaper service. Put your money where your complaint is.
This is REALLY silly.
There are several people who with no idea how business runs. Seriously, you can easily identify yourself by not looking at simple reason being offered you by those WTIH a clue.
You have answered your own question. You want free caller ID? Go to one that provides, or "bundles" it in the cost of service. Those services also don't have thousands of miles of plant to maintain, they don't have thousands of employees, brick and mortar costs, you name it. Yes I think the cost is relative to the service.
I sugges you go to vonage or others like you said who give it away. You also get service that is WORTH the $14/$24 fee you pay. Service that has NO SLA to be available 99.99% of the time, the quality, and all the service available to you when something goes wrong.
Vonage and other services have few employees and some servers to operate - that's it! They don't even have to provide the transport, cable or telephone providers do with broadband. | |
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