OT - Cellphone billing

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: James Knott <james.knott-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>

| On my bill, it's $2.80/month.  As I mentioned in another message, poverty
| activists demanded a cheaper pulse line, regardless of any costs involved.
| Also, IIRC, touch tones are not a tariffed item, so it's easier for Bell to
| change the price.  It's long past the time the CRTC should have rolled touch
| tone dialing into basic service.

There was a tariff proposal before the CRTC to do just that.  Everyone
would pay the $2.80.  I and a horde of little old ladies wrote in to
the CRTC to protest that we didn't want to pay for touch tone.  The
CRTC kept the existing regime.

I doubt that it had anything to do with poverty activists.  Poor folks
cannot get pulse-only lines.  Only folks that already have them.

I would agree with eliminating the tariff, but not just adding it to
everyones bill.

Originally, touch-tone was a luxury, just like other features and long
distance.  As I understood it, CRTC wanted to subsidize basic service
by overcharging on all the luxuries.

That model is just plain broken.  Mostly because of long-distance
competition.

If we had true local competition, the "features" would quickly fall to
zero incremental price.


When you have a monopoly, the price is determined by the value to
(some portion of) the potential customers.  When you have competition,
the price is determined by the cost to provide the service.  Guess
which regime we are in.  There are hybrid regimes like our
semi-duopoly.

I've advocated that a third wired digital pipe be installed in houses. 
Unfortunately, I can't argue that the third supplier would make tonnes of 
money, they would just drive down the prices of the first two pipes.

Whoever installs this pipe needs to be paid the costs of
installation, probably up-front.  Something that our short-sighted
consumers are loath to do.
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