[RTC List] Time for Redundant Fiber

[William Van Hefner]

On Tuesday 09 October 2007 9:46:19 pm Sean Connors wrote:
> Admittedly, I'm rather a "lurker" on this list . . . . but I am damned glad
> that THIS ONE really seems to have everyone's dander up.
>
> 99% of my clients are out of the area, so I definitely got hurt today . ..
> . . but I think one subject that really deserves attention in a big way
> that isn't getting it is the inability to process credit/debit card
> transactions when this happens.

Here's the irony... It's actually CHEAPER for most merchants to do all of 
their financial transactions using VSAT (about $50/mo)  broadband internet 
service than it is for them to subscribe to business class DSL from the phone 
company or get commercial cable modem service. Why is anyone stupid enough to 
pay AT&T for their flaky service when all they need is enough bandwith to 
process some credit card transactions? At least with satellite, you won't 
lose service unless the sky starts falling. Plenty of gas stations and 
convenience stores never lost service today, because they were never 
dependent upon the fiber link to begin with.

> There are many ramifications here, and they are probably larger than the
> loses those of us who depend upon the Internet ( not to mention long
> distance phone & cell ) to operate have incurred -- what of all of the
> businesses locally who can't do sales because folks can't use their
> "electric money"?

I would have LOVED to have been in the check cashing business in downtown 
Eureka this afternoon! For every cloud...

> For example, how much did Humboldt Merchant Services lose today over local
> businesses not being able to process?

HMS suffered few losses, since the vast, vast majority of their merchant 
accounts are out of the area. They probably lost more money in wasted 
productivity on Monday, when all of their employees were forced to work on a 
federal holiday.

> How much did big boxes like Target, KMart, & Costco Wholesale lose? Did
> Verizon and Sprint lose money because folks couldn't go over their allotted
> hours this month or rack up "per use" charges, etc.? Shouldn't they be
> interested in throwing some of their weight in on this?

Those stores didn't lose a dime, because people will eventually come in and 
buy whatever it is that they really need, anyway. Unless there is another 
store across the street that WILL accept credit cards, the impact upon them 
is minimal. You can't just stop buying food or gas indefinitely. They will 
get your money sooner or later. I was at Costco today, and they were doing a 
brisk business, still accepting American Express cards as if they were cash, 
with no electronic verification.

> Frankly, my wife and I have become so accustomed to this that we don't even
> bother to go to the bank or the grocery store or anywhere else when this
> happens. Of course, much of this will be made up for tomorrow, but how much
> won't be? For example, we won't be going to the grocery store tomorrow to
> buy what we were going to by, because we just dug into the freeze and the
> cupboards to find something. Business lost for a grocer there.

You think that things are bad here? Just wait until you go from dealing with 
the (at least) somewhat competent AT&T straight to an incompetent, 
third-world-like telco up there by the name of Qwest. Far, far fewer services 
are available with Qwest than with AT&T or Verizon. The service is also 
generally more expensive. I had also looked at relocating to Oregon as well. 
However, the fact that I would quite literally be paying more than 10x the 
property taxes in that state as I pay here killed it for me. Thanks to Prop 
13, I only pay 1% per year on what my home's value was in 1974 in property 
taxes. In Oregon, I would pay anywhere from 6.5-10% of the property's CURRENT 
value each year in taxes! As long as you don't actually have to live there, 
Oregon is a great place to do business. 65% of all the state's corporations 
only pay $25 per year in corporate taxes, which includes the filing fee. :-)

> And what about those deadliners out there who meant to pay some bill online
> on time today, but couldn't and now got smacked with a late fee? Those late
> fees also must trickle out of spending that would contribute to this
> economy locally.

That's what you get for waiting until the last minute! I use automatic bill 
payment from my bank to set up payments several days ahead of time. They 
still went through, even though I was not online. FedEx, UPS and the Post 
Office still deliver overnight.

> Did local "day traders" lose money or fail to make money because they
> couldn't trade? Even in a county this size, there must be some losses here
> to the local economy.

They will only be able to "speculate" as to whether they lost any money, at 
best. They might just as easily have benefitted from not being able to trade 
a stock they own that ends-up skyrocketing the next day. You might as well 
apply this to lottery tickets as well.

> Any real estate deals didn't close today?

What would have kept a real-estate deal from going through? Most are done 
in-person or via overnight courier.

> SNIP

The bottom line is, alternative methods of access ARE available. Just because 
some businesses are too stupid or too cheap not to use them doesn't mean that 
the area is doomed. Obviously, there are a LOT of businesses in this area 
that feel that it is not worth their time to set up something like VSAT, or 
who are too ignorant to know that such services even exist. I would have to 
equate this with a grocery store who is foolish enough not to spend money on 
a backup generator, when they have thousands of dollars worth of frozen or 
refrigerated food that can be lost during an electrical outage. Who would you 
blame for all of this food/money being lost? PG&E???

Unfortunately, AT&T DOES have a monopoly on local telephone service, which is 
an entirely different matter. All other carriers are dependent upon them for 
service, and satellite telephone service is still horribly expensive or 
completely unreliable, depending upon the technology used. Loss of telephone 
service could easily lead to lives being lost, which is far more important 
than money. I, for one, could not make or receive ANY calls on my Sprint 
wireless phone all day. 911 was also likely unavailable. This is a life or 
death matter, and can't be taken too seriously.


Van

>
> All the best,
>
> --  Sean
>
> Sean Connors
> Web Merchant Services
> www.WMSmerchantservices.com
> Sean at WMSmerchantservices.com
> 1-877-569-6584 (sales and fax)
> 1-707-443-4447 (support)