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To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (17554)	10/1/1998 12:10:00 PM
From: Gerald Walls	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77399

I think we confuse free voice telephony with that of free speech, sometimes. Sounds like the All-American thing to do and all, but no one works for free. Leastwise, when they are providing what some pundits have termed "niche" services. FWIU, when Arizona Public Service was pushing for approval of the Palo Verde nuclear plant they said that it would make electricity so cheap in Phoenix that you'd just pay a small monthly fee and no one would have meters.

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (17554)	10/1/1998 3:29:00 PM
From: Tulvio Durand	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77399

Frank, your argument of 99% data traffic being time insensitive, and the 1%, voice, which is time sensitive and requires greater care (and, therefore, greater cost) is well taken. The argument becomes moot if and when so much bandwidth becomes available at ever decreasing cost through ubiquitous fibers and DWDM so that both data and voice are transmitted with insignificant time delays. I hear WCOM commercials touting its cheap and fast broadband capability. QWST claims it can carry 80% of today's total data traffic over its fiber networks. Could the argument be restated in terms of nearness to the day when we have near-zero-delay data communications? For now, those that have the data network in place with the required VoIP interface equipment may have to pay only for data transfers and net connectivity and maintenance. But we'll still have to plink in a fistfull of coins at the corner phone booth to make a local voice call, no matter how long we wait. Tulvio