AA> I just learned that Bell Canada is now accepting email addresses to be
 AA> printed along with one's name in the phone book! 
Best that I've been able to determine, yes, that's true...
 AA> I believe that this is a sneaky way of Bell to conduct a survey to
 AA> find out who is "connected" with an ISP and to find out what customers
 AA> are not with Bell's own Sympatico. 
Weeelllllll now, let's see...
You know, that's an interesting postulation that you assert ! An even 
better_
MARKETING position would be to offer e-mail address listings to SYMPATICO
Subscribers only, and let the Rest of Us _drool_ with envy over this. Not
even UUNET can cut you a listing like that ! Nor e>CONNECT. Individual ISP's
_could_ attempt to counter but their co$t$ alone would become prohibitive...
and next-to-futile. I mean, what would you rather: the BELL directory, which
is distributed through Tele-Direct as a more-or-less _free_ service to HOW
MANY within any one geographical area (not to mention that directories are
made available through out-of-town public libraries' Refernce sections), OR
having to pay for what amounts to a limited-circulation "club roster" of any
one ISP's Subscribers' List ?
Methinks BELL is smarter than what you suggest... She could buy the mailing
lists from ISP's and then target listees for direct mailings _at the same
time_ she sends her monthly phone bill (in the same envelope, no less). Quite
nicely sidesteps CanPost's recent decision to not handle junk mail, too...
ISP's are definitely becoming more and more vulnerable to such "attacks"
these days no question about it. The Big Guys, like Bell, Sprint and Rogers,
for example, have much Deeper Pockets...and are so very much better
diversified in a business sense than what most ISP's are prepared to readily
accept. To the Big Guys, an ISP outfit is a cheap buy: they'll soon start
flexing their muscles, I think, to absorb the smaller ISP's - if this hasn't
already begun ! Market ROI will be extremely handsome, to say the least...if
only because the Big Guys already have the infrastructures they need to make
it work already in place. We're talking millions here provincially, hundreds
of millions nationally, and that's what I call "beautiful". There ISN'T a
single Canadian ISP around today that can really afford to play the game with
the Big Guys: they have enough trouble just finding-out what the rules are at
any given moment !
Semper Fi
RTP
~~~ PGPBLUE 3.0 
... So August, I hear you're into molinology...
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