Well, Africa Online's rather cheap, so I don't find it much of a problem. They're experimenting with a flat fee, I don't know where that's going though.
GTE and EastLink have been using flat fees for decades, and it has worked great for them - so much so that it is the industry standard. Aliant is actually one of the few companies that still uses a graduated rating system - they are planning on scrapping it next year.
richie42 said:
Hey Dan, are New York and Pennsylbania still in revolt? I'm just curious because my family's originally Pittsburgese, and the lack of news coming from the former U.S.A due to their. . . interesting state just makes me curious about what happened to them.
Well, AFAIK (both through the BCNE, the private media here, and from friends), New York split into two. Upstate New York decided to join with New England, and Downstate New York (including New York City and Long Island) decided to rejoin the US - though not without Staten Island eventually becoming part of New Jersey and some huge problems in Long Island - that is the area that Fenwick is talking about. Interestingly, though, Downstate New York decided to model itself on Singapore and is still successful.
As for Pennsylvania - well, that's divided between "West Pennsylvania" (aka the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania), which is pretty much an independent Canadian-style country, though a bit more centralized than Canada, and "East Pennsylvania" (aka the State of Pennsylvania), which is under the control of the US. East Pennsylvania is in the same boat as the rest of the US, which considering the LONG economic depression that the US has been in for quite some time now I think is a bit stupid. Then again, it's the only way for New York City and New Jersey to get connected with the rest of the US. If I were in charge, though, I'd have New Jersey and Downstate New York part of New England, and I'd have West and East reunited under West Pennsylvania's government.
BTW - I don't know if this news came out outside of New England - what do you think of the Government's bill to expand the college system to cover those areas that are not yet covered? My suspicions are that more Technology Colleges and Community Colleges are going to be built and maybe 1 or 2 additional University Colleges and (even though it's probably a long shot) a few more branches of the Institutes. Whilst that might be the case, I was kind of hoping for some more University Colleges - must be me, reminiscing of my time at Assumption. Fortunately for me, I got my B.A. and my Master's at an autonomous university - yes, Providence U is Roman Catholic, but still at least it's better than a public uni. You should see the state that URI is in - it makes me want to puke. I would've like to have gone to a chartered uni, like Brown, but I don't have the money to pay tuition for that. So long as the Tripartite System is still in place, however, I'm fine.