Bell Atlantic serves several middle Atlantic states, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia and West Virginia. The company has filed residential ISDN tariffs in these states based upon per minute usage fees. Bell Atlantic generally is asking for a fixed monthly fee equal to the measured use POTS rate plus $19.50 per month, and a per minute charge of 2 cents per minute per B channel for day time usage, and 1 cent per minute per B channel for evening use, for "data" use. BA using an expanded "day" that ends at 7 pm, for its ISDN tariff. Some state have different twists for "voice" services over ISDN -- often because of state laws requiring flat rate options for voice.
Under this pricing plan, 100 hours of ISDN usage (using both B channels) would cost from $150 to $270 per month.
Consumers have made some initial headway fighting the Bell Atlantic tariffs in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, DC and NJ. The Consumer Project on Technology has filed comments with state commissions in Maryland, Delaware and Washington DC, and we are providing some assistance to consumers in Virginia and New Jersey who are protesting the tariffs. Bell Atlantic has promised Maryland and Virginia that they would file flat rate tariffs, but they have told Delaware that they will not provide the service if it is a flat rate. Bell Atlantic opposes a cost based flat rate residential ISDN. On the one hand, the firm thinks that if it can implement a metered usage tariff it can "tax" Internet users, giving Bell Atlantic a portion of the perceived "value" of higher speed Internet access. On the other hand, Bell Atlantic wants to use its copper wire infrastructure to provide a new video on demand service that they will control access to, and which they hope will not be subject to price controls. If an affordable (around $20 per month) flat rate ISDN service ever becomes a mass market service, it would provide an "open platform" for new digital services, and make it difficult for Bell Atlantic to be a "gatekeeper" for new high speed information services.
Bell Atlantic is among the companies that is experimenting with ways of increasing the speed of digital services delivered over the copper wire telephone network. In Philadelphia, Bell Atlantic engineers say the company has tested new ISDN connections that use boosters to increase the speed of the connection to more than 1.5 Mbps, using a twisted pair local drop. BA is also among the companies experimenting with ASDL technology, delivered over telephone wires. Both services will compete against BA's own residential ISDN service.
Bell Atlantic is involved in a number of joint ventures or partnerships with other telecommunications companies. For example:
For more details, look at Notes from Bell Atlantic States.
Bell Atlantic's homepage is http://ba.com