From: "Paul J. Zawada" <zawada@ncsa.uiuc.edu> There are lots folks in the phone company who have no clue as to how the Internet works. This is why none of them saw this Internet access thing coming. (Not that I'm sure they could have done anything about it...) They now have a network that is underengineered for the way it's being used and they have to do something about it quick... The only means they know of is to raise the price.

It's much worse than that. As some folks know, I'm part owner (I provided the hardware out of my spare equipment) of a very small ISP serving northern Mississippi. I don't live in northern Mississippi. There was no Internet service there from anybody else 3 years ago, and the only way we could afford to bring down a line from Chicago to a client was put up modems to share the cost with other local subscribers. Well, we have hundreds of subscribers now (I had no idea there were so many folks scattered about in such a rural area, we get a hundred more each month), and have been paying many thousand $ a year for the lines. You think that in 3 years Bell South might have noticed the need for more infrastructure? Particularly since they highlighted us in their monthly newsletter a year or so back? And that those $ would have been used for upgrading equipment? Well, no. They are still using a _mechanical_ switch, and have no plans to upgrade. They do not have enough lines into the business district for us to add 8 more modems to the pool (it was taking weeks to get existing lines turned on anyway). They refuse to let us co-locate in the CO (they cannot find an official policy, and thus cannot allow it). Giving them more money will not help the problem. And if any of you know someone to talk to in Atlanta to bypass the locals, I'd sure like to know. Thanks in advance! WSimpson@UMich.edu Key fingerprint = 17 40 5E 67 15 6F 31 26 DD 0D B9 9B 6A 15 2C 32 BSimpson@MorningStar.com Key fingerprint = 2E 07 23 03 C5 62 70 D3 59 B1 4F 5E 1D C2 C1 A2