CompuServe Messages

John, Within Canada data communications are either provided by Telecomm Canada (Datapac) or by CNCP Telecommunications. Rates for both of these services (as well as telephone service) are regulated by the federal government. However international carries such as Tymnet, CIS or Genie (the only three that I know of that have nodes in Canada) are NOT federally regulated…..I've confirmed this by talking to various government departments. As evidence of this I gave the example of Plink AND Tymnet charges being 40% less than Tymnet charges only when connected to CIS. Compuserve currently charges Canadians accessing CIS via a CIS node 25 cents an hour. Now I'm sure that Compuserve isn't a philanthropic organization so at that rate they are at least covering their costs. Tymnet charges Canadian accessing Plink about $4 per hour…..while for Tymnet access to CIS its $9 per hour. If you don't have a Compuserve node your only alternatives here are either Tymnet or Datapac…..and strangely enough Datapac access costs about $9 an hour also. So the differential in rates is 3600%…..now that sounds very fishy to me <no apersions on Fred> but it certainly seems somebody is making a packet of money <excuse the pun>….not to mention collusion and price fixing.