On Fri, 4 May 2007 18:23:31 +0100, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Andy Hall wrote:
I think we already know the answer to that question. People in
outlying areas would pay the true economic cost of the service.

That attitude is far reaching. Do you expect to pay more for
electricity the further you are from the generator? Etc.

A country *has* to be run on the basis that essential services are
reasonably uniform throughout. Anything else would bring chaos. Of
course that doesn't stop big business trying to cherry pick the bits
they want purely for profit.

I've always wondered how come long distance telephone calls cost the
consumer more than local calls?

They don't, in this house they're all free.

The next step as soon as I'm confident the technology is reliable is
that all calls over (EU) Europe are free with a 2p connect charge.

And how come a letter sent from Lands End
to John O'Groats is the same price as sending one to the next street?

I suspect the answer is that the cost of the transport of bulk mail is
insignificant, like sugar snap peas from Kenya or asparagus from Peru.

The cost of postage is rather like the standard connect charge on the
VOIP phone system.

DG