unido making commercial use of the net

[Robert J. Granvin]

>> Yes, but AT&T is a private company, and the stroke of a judge's pen was
>> all that was needed in the end to break it up. The benefits of that are
>> questionable. However in Europe, the state monopoly on telecommunications

>Sorry, just couldn't keep silent. The benefits are questionable, you say?
>Do you REALLY mean that if the service we're getting now (when there's some
>competition) is rather poor - it would be better without ANY competition?
>Think again, please.

Well, it IS an amazing concept, but yes, it is actually possible to
have better service, better quality and at the same time even lower
cost when a major company doesn't have to sink millions of dollars
into advertising, cost cutting gimmicks and flashy productions.

Unfortunately, that situation is rare, but not impossible.

In the case of U.S. long distance communications services, I'm
continually amazed and appalled by how _bad_ the quality, and
especially service, can be on most or even all (at times) of the ATT
competitors.  ATT isn't flawless either, but unlike others, they can't
claim the dubious distinction of billing me hundreds of dollars for a
month of non-usage, or continually "losing" my existance (and
therefore threatening me for using their services illegally).  How
about those that hype fiber optic, and then send those fiber optic
lines through rusty analog switches, or beam them to seeminly out of
sync satellites?  You get horrible static, but boy, is it CLEAR
static...!  :-)

Better service after the break up?  Not from the competitors, at
least.

Now, is there someplace better we can take this?  Or will someone wake
me up when sources start coming through here again?

My $0.02.  :-)

-- 
________Robert J. Granvin________        INTERNET: rjg at sialis.mn.org
____National Computer Systems____          BITNET: rjg%sialis.mn.org at cs.umn.edu
__National Information Services__            UUCP: ...amdahl!bungia!sialis!rjg
 "I'll just go bang my head on a wall & figure out why I abuse myself so much"