Practical Internet article [14 March 1998]
Tim Richardson has written an excellent article on unmetered local calls. It is not online apart from the magazine cover and is far too long and fragmented to transcribe, but I have a 'box' on the fourth page and there is a quote - not worth reproducing - from CWC.
In lieu of the article, read the thank-you email I sent to Tim which gives something of the flavour of what was written:
I have the article in front of me, and it's excellent - by far the best I've read on metering. I'm glad that, for once, there is a balance between the views of telecommunications companies and those of users; the interview of US householders was an good idea. And kudos for getting the difference between 'free' and 'unmetered' clear in the second and third paragraphs - there's a lot of education to be done on that distinction.
Something the article didn't explore, and which I missed as well because it has only really become apparent in the last couple of months as more and more people have become interested in the Watch, is the social benefit of unmetered calls.
Several of my most powerful campaigners are on benefits for one reason or another, most commonly because of long-term illness. They point out that, with unmetered calls, the Internet is a cheap method of communication; they can get a 386 or 486 PC for nothing - I should know as my company has been giving them away - use freeware and work away quite happily. They would have a telephone anyway as many need an emergency contact.
Metering would sweep their Internet access away; several are doing Open University courses or are otherwise educating themselves and would have to give up if calls were metered. The page by Tony Houghton is the tip of an iceberg.
So all these arguments about '60p an hour is good value' [45p for CWC at weekends!] are superficially plausible if you're the head of AOL, or a senior BT executive, or you, or me ... but utterly invalid if you're on a low income.
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