FCC doing it again...

Bill Wyatt wyatt at cfa.HARVARD.EDU
Wed Nov 29 02:24:11 AEST 1989


<< [...] In short a modem call is the same as a voice
<< call, and should not be subject to any additional charges.
<
< A modem phone call is not the same as a voice phone call.  Modem calls are
< continuously transmitting tones on the line, while a voice call has lots 
< of periods of silence.  This makes modem calls harder to multiplex on the 
< phone network than voice calls.

I don't want extra charges either, but in addition to the above 
consideration, modem calls are not the same simply because they
usually last much longer than a voice call. Somewhere I read an
estimate that if only 20% of household had modems in regular use,
the phone system would be hoplessly bogged down.

Bill Wyatt, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory  (Cambridge, MA, USA)
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