Re: Internet vs. Telephone company

[! Drive]

>An interesting article was posted by the Seattle Times yesterday, it's at:
>
> http://www.seattletimes.com/topstories/browse/html97/inet_013097.html
>
>This was the Jan 30, 1997 issue. In it, Diedtra Henderson writes:
>
>"US West serves 2.2 million customers in Washington state and spent $340
>million improving its phone system here last year, a spokesman said. The
>company blames a meteoric rise in Internet use for its phone-service woes.
>[SNIP] 
>"For the next five years we are in big trouble. There is no clear,
>intelligent way to expand the phone system to handle the Internet
>demands," said Lu, who expects metered Internet access in the future - in
>other words, you pay by the hour. "
>
>My question is:  Have other people heard of similar attempts by the
>telephone companies to have "metered Internet access"?  It seems they
>would need a hardware level signal analyzer on their switching equipment
>to differentiate between voice/data.  
	Who is to say that my data call is actually connecting to the
	Internet?

>Does anyone know by what means such a technology could be implemented?  
>What would be the legal ramifications? 
>
>Also do people agree with the claims that our local lack of available
>phone lines is due to Internet usage or just to lack of foresight in
>growth management decisions?
	I would say an intential lack of foresight in order to increase charges
	for higher profits.
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