Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sweet Ol who wrote (7906)	3/25/2000 10:42:00 AM
From: gdichaz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13582

John: The causal relationship between "caller pays" and the much more rapid rise in the use of wireless outside the US is difficult to prove and is probably only a factor at the margin. You are quite right that the brute fact is that in much of the world there simply is no alternative easily available efficient wireline access as there is in the US. But even granted that, what is the disadvantage of caller pays here? Rightly or wrongly (and unlike you and your wife apparently) many people I know turn off their phones because they do not wish to take the risk of paying for unwanted calls. If the FCC would simply permit a choice, that would be enough. But the FCC has dragged its feet on this. And it would seem that the influence of the wireline companies and the political clout of McCaw and other powers with connections and savvy with the regulators (viz. the FCC top lawyers alleged "discussions" with Nextel re Nextwave's licenses) raise questions at least as to why the US is the only major country in the world without caller pays. Caller pays is no magic bullet, but it may be helpful to encourage people to keep their phones on and use them and therefore cut off their landlines. It is the possibility that people will cut off their landlines and rely on wireless that scares the "big boys" and seemingly the FCC. Best. Chaz Note: The FCC has historical power for regulation of the details and minutia of wirelines. Less for wireless. Could the potential diminution of the FCC's regulatory power be a factor in this as wirelines stall and begin to shrink while wireless is substituted? Naw that couldn't be, could it?