Re: Prodigy and other providers

[Betty Dawn Hamilton <bhamilt@TENET.EDU>]

Speaking of Prodigy, I am curious about *all* internet providers.  I
talked to some individuals the other day who are considering starting a
commercial venture to provide local service to my town.  In our course of
conversation, as I demonstrated Tenet, they asked about baud rates.

Then they went on to explain that they had heard of providers who
deliberately cut their baud rates down to 2400 even though users had 28.8
modems.  The reason -- to be able to charge more because it takes more
time to do what you want to do online.

When our son was here visiting for Easter, he looked at an experimental
SLIP connection that I have access to and commented that it is *much*
faster than his commercial one. We looked at lots of sites with pretty
complicated graphics, and he said all of them were faster than what he
had experienced at home.  He is from an area where there *should* be some
competition, hence better service.

What about that -- is there a law or something about "bait and switch"?
Can companies provide initial fast baud rates and then deliberately set
them to slower speeds? Have any of you experienced that?  My son didn't
claim that the company did that, I'm just curious to know if anyone has
experienced such.

We will soon have local dial-up with a nearby city, so many of us will be
looking for "personal" commercial connections.  Advice, please, from you
who already have commercial accounts.....  Thanks!

                                .----.
Betty Hamilton, LRS             |    |                701 Cub Drive
bhamilt@tenet.edu           ____|*    ~~~~~~.         Brownfield TX 79316
Brownfield High School      \               |         (806) 637-4523
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