Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL From: SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: 1-900 BBS Message-ID: <8908121653.aa22438@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> Date: 12 Aug 89 20:40:26 GMT References:Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 41 >be advertising this much if there wasn't money to be made on them. Here are >the rates to have a 900 number: > >$1200 installation fee (flip a couple of switches I imagine) >$1000 per month >$0.30 per minute collection fee > >You get to charge up to $2 per minute for the first minute and $1 per minute >for subsequent minutes. This would mean it would take several hundred minutes >per month to pay the monthly costs of the service and anything beyond that >would be profit I guess. That IS the general idea. At the moment most of the profit is being made by 976 (heavy breathing) numbers. >Would anybody call such a BBS (would have to be single-line I suppose)? I've never thought ANY 900 service worthy of the "rational economic man," but P.T.Barnum was right -- there's probably a 'sucker' out there to call a 900-BBS every minute (at least until the first month's bill arrives). Seriously, 'portal' charges only $10 a month for basic service (mail but no permanent storage) and PC Pursuit during 'off-peak' hours is $25 a month. So, for $35 a month it's possible to have access to all 3 Mbytes a day of USENET messages and software plus email to the World (in addition to the as yet unpublicized but useable comserve.com gateway I documented here a couple of weeks ago, I've discovered a similar mcimail.com which also is open -- free from here to there but with standard MCI Mail charges from there to here). Using a 900-BBS to any degree apparently would cost a great deal more than PC Pursuit to 'portal.' Isn't 'pro-carolina' accessible by PC Pursuit anyway? Murph Sewall Vaporware? ---> [Gary Larson returns 1/1/90] Prof. of Marketing Sewall@UConnVM.BITNET Business School sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu [INTERNET] U of Connecticut {psuvax1 or mcvax }!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL [UUCP] (203) 486-5246 [FAX] (203) 486-2489 [PHONE] 41 49N 72 15W [ICBM] The opposite of artificial intelligence is genuine stupidity! -+- I don't speak for my employer, though I frequently wish that I could (subject to change without notice; void where prohibited)