Derek:
you wrote: "Larry, haven't talked to you for awhile, last time I think was on the Last mile thread."
Yeah, I don't visit that thread much any more; seems like it got pretty quiet...
"Did you noticed US Worst lowered ISDN pricing in our area?"
No. I didn't, but that is probably good news. ISDN hasn't even been available until, what, this past year?
"I had a nice talk with the PSC today about US West and their annoying little demands like wanting to increase our phone rates. They want to raise the ISDN rates back up when they increase our phone rates. The PSC told me they're pretty upset at being forced into dropping ISDN rates. Now $64 per month unlimited.."
They are being forced into that, as I'm sure you know, to honor past statements about ISDN pricing, but they are fighting it all the way as it is not profitable and they don't want it to become popular now.
I've looked quite deeply into the ISDN situation; it is quite a loser, financially, for the phone companies in most areas, as they are not allowed to charge the actual operating costs for it. Besides, there are other, more ominous problems: if the phone companies were to really push it, and get a lot of people to sign up, they would have to invest so much money to upgrade in order to support the added customers that it would be better for them to just skip ISDN and go to straight to ADSL or something like that. I don't recall now exactly why that situation exists, ie, what technical problems are behind it, but it does, at least in general, throughout the country; there may be some local networks which have adequate capacity, but generally, there is some part of the system which is about maxed out. Perhaps that is also why they are not trying to drive the price DOWN as they'd originally hoped to; that would actually go against the real needs, which are to drive the price UP so they can pay for the upgrades. I don't think that will work; once the 56K and some new technologies are generally available over the next year or two, ISDN simply will not be that important; actually, that is too strong a statement, as some of the technologies will actually enhance ISDN as well, improving it to the point that it will become attractive to higher end applications. It is all very interesting; again, as soon as possible we will have some of this information on the web site, for you to read, and the ability for you to contribute your opinions, information, links, etc., to the discussion as well. I expect that will take another 6-8 weeks, unfortunately, before it is really on track, but we will start to upgrade the web site in perhaps two weeks or so, with more information, so pop in then and check it out if you're interested. Would also enjoy hearing from you there in response to what we put up.
Derek
BTW, Haven't been to your Web site lately but I'll check it out.."
It hasn't been changed in quite a while; there is so little we can say while we are getting the patent work done that, by the time we edit out everything that could be a problem, what is left isn't anything but hints, allusions, and other such baloney, which won't make any sense to anyone and may even make us look like we're hiding something or not being truthful (which is true, we are hiding "the truth", not because what we are doing is wrong, but because legal requirements won't let us talk about it yet; however, once the "scent" of "hiding something" is on a company, it can become impossible to convince anyone what was really going on. All we con do is sigh, keep working hard, and get things done so we can "go public" with news and information). So, it has languished while resources are spent on getting to where we can freely discuss what our company is doing. It is going to be very exciting and I am becoming impatient, but that's life. It will make it that much more enjoyable when it finally happens!
Good to hear from you again.
Larry |
