TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart

Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart

John Levine (johnl@iecc.com)
27 Dec 2004 20:55:46 -0000

>> Completely agreed. If VoIP is so great, it should be able to support
>> the same obligations as real telephony such as 911 and USF.

> Should email have similar "obligations"?

Of course not. It doesn't purport to be telphony, and it doesn't
interoperate with the other billion phones on the face of the planet.

> So long as I know what I'm getting, I am perfectly happy paying
> for my "fake telephony".

> And, VoIP or no, the USF should be elimated. Now. Immediately.
> Yesterday, if possible.

I think you might enjoy Free World Dialup. It's got no USF and no
pesky high cost users.

Regards,

John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of The Internet for Dummies,
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor
"I shook hands with Senators Dole and Inouye," said Tom, disarmingly.

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not only is Free World Dialup *totally*
free, but you can interface with the public telephone network some
of the time, partly, also for free. For example, you can get no charge
incoming-only telephone numbers in the 360-227 group of numbers in
Washington state. A person dialing that 360-227 number gets translated
into your Free World Dialup line. I think whoever offers that service
gives free voicemail with it as well, and email notification of any
voicemail message received.

Now for outgoing calls, there is more of a problem. Right now, during
December and part of January, FWD is giving free outgoing calls as
well, dialing * plus the country code and the full ten digit number.
Other than this holiday period, FWD only gives free outgoing calls on
the calls they don't have to pay for either, i.e. toll free 800
numbers. What you do in that case is *1 plus the ten digit toll free
number. Free World Dialup is not a bad deal at all for many folks. I
have an FWD number on one of my Think Pad laptops (the one with the
wireless 802.11 card in it) so I can walk around in my back yard and
get phone calls via the 360-227-xxxx number from anyone. PAT]

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: Lisa Minter: "Surfing in Secret"
Go to Previous message: Justin Time: "Re: Drill Bit Size"
May be in reply to: Jack Decker: "USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart"
Next in thread: Jeff C: "Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page