Hi Michiel!

Thursday June 01 2006, Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Vladimir Donskoy:

 MV>>>>> We dealt with it somehow. No reason why you can not do the
 MV>>>>> same.

 VD>>>> I wrote about cost of phone calls in comparation to the salary -
 VD>>>> middle salary in Russia is 5000 roubles, but 1 minit phone calls
 VD>>>> from distance of 1000 km (zone 600-1200 km) is 25 roubles (in my
 VD>>>> work phone provider - Global1). So - all salary is for 200
 VD>>>> minits per a month.

 MV>>> Yes, that is very expensive. But not unheard of here in the past
 MV>>> here as well.

 VD>> How years was ago?

 MV> 1995, when FidoNet was at its top here.

So I can have a hope after 10 years we will have more beatiful costs of phonecalls.

 MV>>> Other than that, it depends how far one goes into the past. Note
 MV>>> that from here a 1000 km call always is an international call.
 MV>>> Nowadays it is nt so bad for nearby countries, but only ten years
 MV>>> ago, it was very expensive. Rates of one or two Guilders a minute
 MV>>> (up to one Euro) were not unheard of.

 VD>> International calls cost still more

 MV> Yiu have the advantage of being a big country, over here a 200 km call
 MV> always is an international call. In your country it often is a national
 MV> call.

It is correct particulary - Moscow is not a center of Russia, so I have
another country on west at 500 km and on east at 10000 km :-) . Call to 500
km distance may have same Europe countries - for example France, Germany,
Norway...

 VD>> - from 1.5 euro per minit for near countries (Ukraine) to 2-3 euros
 VD>> for Europe countries.

 MV> U symphatise with your problems. But I know they can be overcome as we had
 MV> the same problems and found a way.

We decide these problem by IP-phones, but it is not correct for FIDO.

 MV>>> And *then* we did not have the InterNet as an alternative....

 VD>> It is a false -

 MV> Note the "then". Back then in 1995, we did *not* have
interneyt access
 MV> available for the average fidonet sysop. Only big companies could afford
 MV> it.

OK, sorry.

 VD>>  you have many alternative providers, and also you have
 VD>> very high percent of lease-line connects to Internet who can use
 VD>> IP-phones (SKYPE for example).

 MV> Not in 1995...

OK.

 VD>>>> I agree that we is not unique, but we is very far from Europe
 VD>>>> (on service and another criteries)...

 MV>>> Europe is a big place. Here, in The Netherlands things are
 MV>>> relatively advanced. But in Ireland where my parents had a summer
 MV>>> cottage, there still was a telephone without a dial and just a
 MV>>> crank to signal the operator not that long ago.

 VD>> But your salary allow to use satellit phones

 MV> My income definitely does *not* allow me a satellite phone.

Really?! This is a strange - 1 minit satellit call cost near 2-3 euros, and
satellit-phone cost 300-500 euros... This is not expensive for work people
in Europe!

 VD>>  (for example - Carol's connect to FIDO over USA BBS).

 MV> She is in the US navy making use of some special arrangement. Partly - or
 MV> mostly - paid for by the US tax payer. She is a special case.

Not a fact, but may be.

 VD>> About summer houses - in Moscow area at 100-200 km from Moscow exist
 VD>> villages without any phone communication - without not only-cable but
 VD>> without cell phones! And his salary is not allow to use satellit :-(
 VD>> .

 MV> As I said, my salary does not allow me a satellite phone either.

Strange.

 VD>> For example: http://www1.mtsgsm.com/coverage/mts/moscow/ - map of the
 VD>> most cell provider for Moscow region.

 MV> Well, that doesn't look so bad. Actually it looks like over 95% of the
 MV> people live in an area that is covered. That is pretty good I say. Much
 MV> better than I expected.

Areas without cell phones place near "summer-houses"... In the
another places they cost very expensive.

 MV> Perhaps we should ask one of our friends from down under to direct us to a
 MV> cell phone map of Australia...

How FIDO-member Australia have? :-)
And how peoples live in the middle of continent?


However it seems to me that we in vain discuss the prices in the different
countries - sometime at us that standard of living, as now at you will be
accessible. And now it much below...

Regards, Vladimir Donskoy

--- GoldED+/W32-MINGW 1.1.5-b20060326