Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 16:55:06 -0800 (PST) From: Michael Dillon <michael@memra.com> To: isp-marketing@sparknet.net Subject: ISP's will get *NO* refunds Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.93.961220165218.5944M-100000@sidhe.memra.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSI.3.93.961219195037.22426T-100000@sidhe.memra.com>
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It now appear that the whole issue of ISP exemption from FCC Subscriber Line Charges is wrong, wrong, wrong. As I mentioned a month or so ago it appears that the people who have promoted this idea were getting the Network Access Charges (around two cents per minute) confused with the Subscriber Line Charge of $6 per line per month. ISP's are considered Enhanced Service Providers by the FCC and are thus exempt from the NAC but are explicitly required to pay the SLC. Period, end of story. In researching this whole issue I have discovered, via the ISP's who assisted me, that most telco people just don't have a clue about these charges and how or why the NAC is different from the SLC. At one point I expressed the opinion that the only known ISP to get a refund may have bamboozled their local telco into refunding money that they shouldn't have. Anyway, this whole thing started with some public statements by an organization called IDEA followed by a SPAM to all ISP's from IDEA. The evidence so far available publicly makes it appear that IDEA is lying about ever having collected telco refunds. And even if they did manage to bamboozle money out of the telco they did not deserve the refund and will have to pay it back. Here is what someone else discovered when they dug into IDEA and in particular note what Bell Atlantic said about refunds to Imagixx. >It may interest you to know that Shannon Hamra of LDD Net, who is >active with the AOP Internet Service Provider and Marketing SIGs (you >may have met her at the AOP conference last October), took the time to >contact IDEA and pursue them on this issue. Here's what she found: > >1) Though its name includes the word "Association," IDEA is a >for-profit corporation rather than a non-profit trade or professional >association. Their motivation is profit for themselves, not the good >of the industry or the defense of ISPs. > >2) When pressed, IDEA admitted that they have never actually >collected any money for any ISP. They do claim to have recovered such >moneys for themselves, though Bell Atlantic has no record of such a >refund. At various times, IDEA has made claims to have recovered >money from Pac Bell and others, but is able to offer no substantiation >of these claims. > >3) When pressed for details of the alleged overcharges, IDEA sent >Hamra to the CIX web site. The document she was instructed to read >was, in fact, a draft white paper in response to the Clinton >Administration's GII (Global Information Infrastructure)/NII (National >Information Infrastructure) policy draft from last year. It only >encourages the White House to seek a continuation of existing >exemptions from per-minute access charges. IDEA also sent her to the >web site of the National Exchange Carrier Association, though that >site has nothing helpful to offer. Michael Dillon - Internet & ISP Consulting Memra Software Inc. - Fax: +1-604-546-3049 http://www.memra.com - E-mail: michael@memra.com
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