-=> Quoting Bill Grimsley to Peter Pilbeam <=-

 BG> Peter, at 22:30 on May 29 1995, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...
 
 PP> Talking to an uncle of my wifes the other day who works for Telecom I asked 
 PP> him about these schemes offering discount phone charges, the union that I'm 
 PP> in is offering a 25% discount on your phone bill. 

 BG> Interesting.  The highest discount I currently know of is only 15%.

Interesting after writing this message I re-read the information
on the discount scheme and it says that at the present time the 
discount stands at 21% and when there are more people using the 
system then the discount will be 25%
 
 PP> Anyway this uncle said that the people offering the discount are resellers 
 PP> and he doesn't know how they can do such deals as the resellers have to pay 
 PP> Telecom for the calls :-)

 BG> Given that a 1 cent (i.e. 4%) reduction per 25 cent call fee results
 BG> in a loss of revenue to Telstra of $1.2 million (source: Frank Blount,
 BG> ABC-TV), a 25% overall discount equates to a loss in the order of $7.5
 BG> million, not at all what I'd call a trivial amount. 

What show was that on? The ABC seem to have a knack of getting
some informative information out. Telstra must feel that a 
system like this will give them the edge against Optus.

 PN> with OTHER things to be added as well, like electrivity, gas, 
 PN> Pay-TV etc in the future.
 
 BG> exist? Quite aside from which, changing from quarterly to monthly
 BG> billing will also cost even more money by way of lost interest. 
 
 PP> Into the high finance here Bill, 2 months intrest on my account 
 PP> wouldn't pay for the stamp to post the payment :-)

 BG> True, same here (actually, I pay on the freecall number via credit
                                                                 ^^^^^^    
 BG> card, so that's more or less irrelevant).  However, that's not really
     ^^^^
Now that can cost!

 BG> the point, which is that paying monthly instead of quarterly MUST cost
 BG> more in the end. 

That would depend on how they would charge for the rental on your
phone etc. If it is just caculated over the year to be the same 
then you shouldn't have to pay any more.
Regards
Peter.

... MODEM - Monumentally Overpriced Data Eating Machine.
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