Ralph Mowery wrote on 12/23/2017 3:06 PM:
In article , says...

Gene Wirchenko wrote on 12/23/2017 8:08 AM:
On Fri, 22 Dec 2017 15:39:08 -0600, Charles Richmond
wrote:

[snip]



The phone company has no incentive to make this work better for users.
Their profits are regulated and they have no competition. I have a place in
a very rural area and when I first bought it computers used dial up. I got
very lucky and there was a local exchange that was not quite as local as the
others so I could reach a provider. Otherwise it would have been a non-long
distance toll call. For many others on the other side of the lake it was a
toll call. It's still that way some 30 years later. TPC has no incentive
to increase the non-toll region even though it costs them nothing in
equipment which was upgraded decades ago. They just have to change their
billing.

The phone company better get some incentive. They are probably loosing
lots due to the cell phones and now to the internet phones. Neither of
them seem to charge extra for what is usually a long distance call.
The phone bill was about $ 20 but taxes and LD connect and other fees
made it around $ 40 per month. If you add caller ID and a few other
things , it will cost even more. Most of that is 'free' with the $ 30
internet phone I am now using.

You seem to fail to understand how "the phone company" operates. They have
capital investment. A regulatory board allows them a certain profit based
on that capital investment. If they make too little profit they can request
rate changes of the regulatory board. TPC doesn't lose money.

--

Rick C

Viewed the eclipse at Wintercrest Farms,
on the centerline of totality since 1998

In article , rickman wrote:
You seem to fail to understand how "the phone company" operates. They have
capital investment. A regulatory board allows them a certain profit based
on that capital investment. If they make too little profit they can request
rate changes of the regulatory board. TPC doesn't lose money.

That was called rate of return regulation. In the US, only little
rural telcos still do that. Big phone companies have negotiated price
caps instead, which give them a new incentive to invest as little as
possible in the regulated network.

For the most part, mobile phone rates aren't regulated at all.

--
Regards,
John Levine, , Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

John Levine wrote on 12/23/2017 11:15 PM:
In article , rickman wrote:
You seem to fail to understand how "the phone company" operates. They have
capital investment. A regulatory board allows them a certain profit based
on that capital investment. If they make too little profit they can request
rate changes of the regulatory board. TPC doesn't lose money.

That was called rate of return regulation. In the US, only little
rural telcos still do that. Big phone companies have negotiated price
caps instead, which give them a new incentive to invest as little as
possible in the regulated network.

For the most part, mobile phone rates aren't regulated at all.

You are confused. The cell phone companies are in a different business.
Verizon may own a public telephone company, but most of the US has public
phone companies owned by someone else. The phone companies providing
landline phone service are still regulated entities regardless of who owns
what.

--

Rick C

Viewed the eclipse at Wintercrest Farms,
on the centerline of totality since 1998

That was called rate of return regulation. In the US, only little
rural telcos still do that. Big phone companies have negotiated price
caps instead, which give them a new incentive to invest as little as
possible in the regulated network.

For the most part, mobile phone rates aren't regulated at all.

You are confused. The cell phone companies are in a different business.
Verizon may own a public telephone company, but most of the US has public
phone companies owned by someone else. The phone companies providing
landline phone service are still regulated entities regardless of who owns
what.

Yes, they're regulated, but most of them are under price caps, not
rate of return. So long as they don't exceed the price caps, the
regulators don't care what their capital investment or profit is.

--
Regards,
John Levine, , Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly