Re: [cobalt-users] rant not, just loosen up

["Fathi Said" <voyager@xxxxxxxx>]

> Europeans? NOT!
>
> Here in Europe they tried to beat the Americans at their own game: "loosing
> money in e-biz"... so they invented the most ridiculous concept: FREE
> internet access. Thus in most of Europe you can now get an internet account
> with no monthly or per minute charge... Funny thing, the bandwidth is often
> better than from the "pay" providers...
> (to be honest, on the flip side europe has very high local phone charges
> which can easily add up to $100s/mo just for going online)

Well, here in Europe there are indeed lots of different possibilities.

There are the fools, who buy an account and pay $20 / mo. for the provider + a per minute fee for the provider + a per minute fee
for the TelCo.

Then there are the more experienced people, who get themselves a free access packet (which actually are available anywhere), they
pay nothing for the provider and just the local TelCo minute based fees. Those fees however depend heavily where you live, here in
Austria eg you pay $1 / hour weekend and $3 / hour business times.

Personally, I currently have cable modem access, but those have a MB limitation (usually 500mb / month) and cost about $90 / mo. w/
no other costs.
Yesterday I ordered a brand new account type: an ISDN 64kbit dedicated line for just $45 / mo. with no limits (no transfer / time
limits).

Hope I didn't annoy anybody with my excourse about Austria's Internet Access possibilities. If so I'm very sorry, just had the need
to inform you :)

Fathi