FirmhandKY
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Joined: 9/21/2004
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Musicmystery
I'm wondering how you can dispute my bills--but whatever.
I don't have a cell phone. I don't even have DSL. It is indeed "just a simple land-line voice phone" I'm paying for now. And as I already indicated, I didn't include Internet expenses in my comparisons.
I do live in a rural area. Perhaps that's the difference.
Or perhaps your memory is short. And perhaps you've forgotten the role of inflation---I remember gasoline at 25 and 9/10ths a gallon....at Esso.
Perhaps living in a rural area makes a difference for you, I don't know.
However, everywhere else:
***
The Telecom Act Turns Four
Office of Plans and Policy*
Federal Communications Commission
February 8, 2000
William E. Kennard, Chairman
Prices for wireless and long distance telephone service have fallen dramatically over the past years. Long distance prices (international and domestic), as approximated by average revenue per minute, have fallen by 34 percent since 1993 (Figure 4). For residential consumers, domestic long distance prices relative to other goods and services have fallen by 10 percent since 1993 (Figure 5). New calling plans now offer consumers long distance rates of only 5 cents per minute. International long distance prices have fallen by more than half since 1993. Mobile prices have fallen by 35 percent since 1993, and average monthly local bills have dropped by $30 – from $70 in 1993 to $40 in 1999 (Figure 6).
***
The Race For Local Competition: A Long Distance Run, Not A Sprint
JOEL I. KLEIN
Assistant Attorney General
Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.
November 5, 1997
As a result of the efforts to open up the long distance market, competitors have increasingly entered that market and prices have fallen dramatically -- on average, consumers now pay 60% less, adjusted for inflation, than they did when AT&T was broken up in 1984.(3) Consumers today have a choice of literally scores of long distance providers, each with different options and offerings. And AT&T has been forced to compete for its customers, losing forty percent of its market share since 1980, and now offering many consumers a-dime-a-minute long distance phone calls.
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Deregulation of Long Distance Telecommunications: Implications For Electric Utilities.
By Phelps, Janet K.
Publication: Bulletin (Northwest Public Power Association)
Date: Monday, November 1 1999
AT&T functioned as a regulated national monopoly for decades until the early 1980's. While AT&T faced several challenges from MCI and the Justice Department in the late sixties and early seventies, the major changes in the industry came in 1984 when two significant events took place. In 1984 AT&T split into seven regional holding companies (the "Baby Bells") and one long distance carrier (AT&T), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) implemented access charges for long distance service, creating a "level playing field" for competitors in the market for long distance telecommunications.
Deregulation resulted in several changes in the industry, some of which are especially relevant to the electric utility industry.
Prices declined and converged. Real (inflation-adjusted) rates for daytime business calls are shown in Figure 1; residential rates were similar. In 1983, prior to AT&T divestiture, AT&T'S average long distance rates exceeded both Sprint's and MCI's average rates by 20 percent. The gap narrowed considerably in 1984, when AT&T's rates exceeded MCI's rates by only 8 percent and Sprint's by 5 percent. By 1987 all three carriers had rates that were virtually equal. Rates continued to be very competitive thereafter.
***
I suppose you can find some more current cites, but I'm not going to put anymore time into this issue.
Firm
_____________________________
Some people are just idiots.
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RE: I'm pissed as hell! Not going to take it anymore - 
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