Also sprach Sean M. Doran

| ... QoS just doesn't seem to fit in the same phrase as "phone | company"

Au contraire. Phone companies, especially monopolistic ones, absolutely LOVE QoS and higher-than-strictly-needed quality standards for applications BECAUSE they are tremendously expensive. There is no better way to exclude competiton than by developing a regime in which authorities enforce artificial and costly standards compliance. Whether it's in the name of "consumer protection" or "protection of the network", this type of thing is simply what phone companies _do_.

And a similar, though not identical, concept is that most services tariffed at the state level have prices that are largely set based on the cost of providing the service, using an obscenely expensive product to do the same thing that a reasonably inexpensive product will do is just a way to inflate the cost justification of a product, and, consequently, how much money they can get the state utility commission to rubber stamp for their prices. Fortunately, some commissions seem to be wising up to this to some degree (Kentucky's seems to be wising up somewhat...seemingly much to BellSouth's chagrin) -- Jeff McAdams Email: jeffm@iglou.com Head Network Administrator Voice: (502) 966-3848 IgLou Internet Services (800) 436-4456