Kevin is getting Married today !!! If we all sent him $100 he could buy a flat bed scanner ?? 
You need a direct connection and a LOCAL number. This summer while we were setting up the system I used 31 hours ( in July )= 1865 minutes at 11 cents = $204.60 but the bill is twice that... to a town 20 miles away but a toll charge which the MCI person told me was 11 cents a call - now they say its 11 a minute - can't I call Europe for 10 cents a minute ???? What is going on... Form New Smyrna to DeBury is the same as LOndon... Good grief.. I still don't understand the bill was like $500.00 no way .. I will call them again.. MCI here I come.. 


I have suggested before that a direct provider is a lot better than a service such as AoL, Prodigy or CompuServe
Here is a list of direct providers. I would be interested in how many areas have more than one and the price structure.

 It takes from $7,000 to $60,000 to set up a "node" on the net and a server with enough modems, lines, and computer capacity. If you have a 1000 clients that is $20,000 a month at $20.00 each. Your operation costs are less than half so the investment can pay back in a few months.

 BUT, AT&T, Sprint, MCI, the cable company will be in the business within a year, and maybe have HD (high capacity lines) and charge ??? The future of the local provider is in doubt buts it's a great business now. They can also provide the help people need and local BBS etc. Yje $20.00 is unlimited time. Then you need (most servers provide) the soft ware.

 With Netscape it very like being on a AoL system and will be more so in a year. (list of services, go to etc.) I have been looking at MS network and they have shown me anything yet. They will use and Encarta (Windows95) format to open up the network in what will be seamless between what is on their system and the WWW. There are a few new soft ware packages that try to do this, including FTP programs to do special tasks. You don't need all the software on your drive, but the program can FTP a program, connect to data and run.. stock markets, news, information and libraries, etc.

The lise does not include 100's or 1000's of local providers? I guess you ask on your local BBS or call information - are they in the Yellow Pages ? It's so new and growing so fast...
Lisy of direct providers from QuarterDeck
Adhesive Media
AlterNet
American Information Systems, inc
AUSNet Services
Beckemeyer Development
Camtech
Charm Net
Cloud 9
Denver Supernet Inc
Dynasty International (Orlando)
Florida Online
Highway 1 (AUSt) Pty Ltd
I-link, Inc
IC Net
ID-Net
InterConnect Australia
Internet Alanta
Internet Channel
Internet On-Ramp, Inc
Interport Communications
Lightside, inc
Magnadata
Maui Research and Technology Center
Microplex Internet Services
Neosoft Inc Via PPP
Net Axis
NSTN Inc
NWRAINet, Inc
Oz-Email
Pegasus (City and Country)
Portal
PSS
QuakerNet Internet Services
Texas Metronet, Inc
The Eden Matrix
The Message eXchange
WorldWide Access Internet Services
Xmission