rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO
 ·Charter Pipeline
| reply to refreshme
Re: Bells
said by refreshme:
When Bells enter VOIP with full force, then it will be that way it is supposed to be. What way would that be? Overpriced? Less features? Pay a fee for every phone/VOIP router?
What's even harder to believe is that you believe the bells need to enter the VOIP landscape at all. The bells don't need a different transport to provide the same service. They have a great network that isn't built around VOIP but they charge too damn much for it.
Right now they could restructure, drop the price of their existing analog service and drive VOIP from the market. I can't think of any good reason why the incumbent LECs cannot offer $19.95/month telephone service with free long distance and every bell-and-whistle feature. Why would anyone bother with VOIP? It's less reliable. It goes out when your Internet connection goes out. 911 might work. Why would I want VOIP if I could get a better service for the same money from the ILECs?
I also think 95% don't know how to hook it up is more like 25% who don't know. As older, less technological savvy generations pass, that number will eventually dwindle to 2%.
What's really changed about the standard HTTP browser in the past 10 years? Is it easier today than it was then or have people adapted? (There's certainly more risk today but have we really changed the "http://www.xyz.com" address format and how it all works?) I think most folks have adapted just like they'll adapt to the wiring difficulties of VOIP. |
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Kizaki
join:2000-05-19
Fort Myers, FL
| The problem is the taxes the government forces people to pay when using this line. Its all politically annoying, but what are you going to do. From what I understand so far, by using VOIP they can doge these taxes. Thank the politicians not the phone companies |
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realist
@ca.frontier
| reply to rradina
"I can't think of any good reason why the incumbent LECs cannot offer $19.95/month telephone service with free long distance and every bell-and-whistle feature."
The large telco employees are unionized. Their average annual salary at the top end is $55000 + benefits. That's one reason why your telephone service is more expensive than you'd like. Deal with it "for the good of the whole" unless you like Wal-Mart like prices and wages. |
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rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO
·Charter Pipeline
| *Sniff* *Sniff* I thought I smelled a socialist.
Until the socialist take total control of this country, that's an awful niave view. What stopped Wal*Mart? What will stop VOIP?
I don't think the average salary of the Bell worker is the problem. The problem stems from the fact that there's TOO MANY of these folks for the true work load. I'm not suggesting 60 hour work weeks. I'm suggesting the average employee probably doesn't work efficiently because of poor leadership. |
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realist
@ca.frontier
| I've noticed this site has so many liberals. My point was:
The very same liberals who want dirt cheap broadband and dialtone are also the very same ones who complain about wages and benefits. There is a direct correlation between product pricing and employee wages and benefits.
BTW: According to some of the Bell workers I've talked to (specifically SBC) they claim management has them running with the bare minimum headcount nowadays. |
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rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO
·Charter Pipeline
| reply to rradina
Does this mean that $14.95/month DSL is being funded with POTS revenue?
Something has to be wrong when SBC charged me $50/month (including taxes/fees/regulations) for a POTS line with no features and no long distance. The only plus was it was a metro calling number so that I could dial most STL folks on the MO side of the Mississippi River for free. If I get in my car and drive three miles east, the price drops to ~$40. If I continue driving, folks in the actual city of STL pay even less. I call this rotten. Dirty, stinking and rotten.
I don't deny anyone a fair wage, with benefits. I don't think $50G/year will break any company that's efficient, well managed and that builds an employee base that feels they have a stake in the success of the company. |
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