#Credit Card Protection
3 messages in this thread
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.
Unfortunately, you don't know what you're talking about. CIS passes
along the AT&T surcharge of 30 cents an hour. It is not a CIS generated
charge. TymNet is an independent company. Others contract with them. They
ae not regulated as to what they charge. You are paying TymNet, not CIS,
when you come in via TymNet. CIS charges you what they are charged. TymNet
charges to specific companies or networks are contractually based. They are
more likely to give a better rate to a company that goes with them
exclusively. They aren't likely at all to agree to a lower rate for a
company that does not use them exclusively and, in fact, is their #1
competitor in North America.
The charges are set by Datapac when you access CIS through that service.
CIS merely charges back what they are charged.
There is an alternative, and that is INet. Strangely enough (not strange
at all considering the source of the pricing), you still use datapac when
you access CIS through INet, but the charges are about 1/4 of what you pay
through Datapac directly to CIS. Check it out, but be prepared to talk to
some very dimwitted people who have to be led by the nose just to get them
to understand what you want to do.