One Big Telecoms Company

At 01:12 PM 11/13/96 -0800, Declan McCullagh wrote:

>* Dave warns us to consider "what would happen if one parent company owned
>*all* communications media." Then we have problems. I've written about
>this in an Internet Underground magazine column. However, this is not the
>case now. Or are you arguing the government should get involved and force
>Gilmore to allow Vulis on his list?
>

The risk of "one big company" owning all communications that lefties on the
net spend a lot of time worrying about is a real screamer.  We had "one big
company" controlling telecoms in most countries on earth for the last 100
years (those were the government monopoly PTTs).  In spite of the fact that
those PTTs were protected from competition by everything up to and
including (at least in the case of BT and France Telecom) nuclear weapons,
they lost their monopolies.  Two days ago, the UK announced that they were
granting licenses to all 46 companies that have applied to carry bits into
and out of the UK.  DT is being sold off starting in January.  If
government monopolies can't hack it, what chance do private companies have?

DCF

In Reply to the Message wherein it was written:

[elided]
>If government monopolies can't hack it, what chance do private companies
>have?

Um, a _better_ one, now that government monopolies are largely out of the
way, leaving significant infrastructure for them to use? There's this one
little company called MCI, see, and there's this _other_ little company
called BT, and...

 {rrring-rrring}

Operator: "Thank you for using MonoTel: and how may we help you today?"
You:      "I'd like to place a call...?"
Operator: "And who would you like to call today, Sir?"
You:      "Uh, my big bother Sam in Washington, please. He's at 212, 555..."
Operator: "I see. Hrmm, let me see if management says it's OK for me to
           dial that number for you... please hold while I look up our
           policy on you calling your family."
 {long pause}
Operator: "Hello, Sir?
You:      "Um, yes, hello?"
Operator: "Um, Sir, have you paid your phone bill for today?"
You:      "Well, gee, I _think_ so... how much was it for today?"
Operator: "Well, our rates went up again at Noon, so that may account for
           the discrepancy. Let me connect you to our Loan Officer so you
           can arrange payment..."
You:      "No, PLEASE, I just need to call my brother, plea-"
Operator: {click... buzz... whirr}
Loan Ofcr:"Hello. Loan Department. May I please have your 20-bit
           customer fingerprint?"
You:      "Uh, sure. Let's see.... 01 D4 3E...{etc}...C2 0A."
Loan Ofcr:"OK, fine. Now, what can I do for you today, Sir?
You:      "Look, I just want to call my big brother Sam in DC, and they
           connected me to you instead..."
Loan Ofcr:"Oh, I see, and have you paid your daily bill today, Sir?"
You:      "Well, I THOUGHT I did. I went to the telephone, I inserted my
           MonoTel smartcard and I dialled the passcode. Then it sucked the
           card in and didn't give it back to me! I figured it was enough."
Loan Ofcr:"Well, it happens to allof us, Sir, don't feel bad. Now, what
           sort of collateral will you be putting up for this call? Do you
           own or rent?
You:      "Well, I used to own, but then I decided to add a modem line, so
           I had to refinance..."
Loan Ofcr:"Ahhh, so this will be a third or a fourth phone mortgage for
           you?"

   dave

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________________________________________________________________________
Dave Del Torto                                      +1.415.65432.31  tel
Manager, Strategic Technical Evangelism             +1.415.631.0599  fax
Pretty Good Privacy, Inc.                        http://www.pgp.com  web