PLEASE SUPPORT - PLEASE DISSEMINATE THIS MESSAGE IS SENT OUT TO DIVERSE INTERNET COMMUNITY AROUND THE WORLD _________________________________________ Dear Friends, colleagues, Internet users : >From January 1, 1999 the Czech Telecom is about to increase again telephone tariffs for local calls in the Czech Republic. This will harm not only the "ordinary telephone users" but first of all the rising Czech Internet community. Would you please support the petition the text of which is given below and pass it on within your own networks ? More information is to be found on: <http://www.bojkot.cz> Where you can also sign for the petition. You can also contact Mr. Patrick Zandl at: <tangero@mobil.cz> Thank you all. Jana Chrzova P.s. The Czech Helsinki Committee is supporting this event by using its contacts world-wide to bring the information to our friends, colleagues and other possibly interested groups and individuals. We belive that this step taken by the SPT Telecom and agreed by the government will do harm also to the rising (and still battling for economic survival) Czech non-governmental, non-profit community by making it even more difficult for us to obtain and exchange information, to participate freely and widely on both national and international networks. We also support this petition in protest against the state guaranteed monopoly of the SPT Telecom in the Czech Republic. _______________________ the petition _______________________ Internet Against Monopoly Petition We, the undersigned, hereby express our great concern related to prepared rise of telephone tariffs as agreed on by SPT Telecom, the Ministry of Finance and the Czech Telecommunications Authority. Should such rise in price of local telephone calls really happen without providing a reasonable alternative for Internet connection, its consequences would have a catastrophic impact on all Internet users in the Czech Republic and furthermore, it would not only intermit Internet development, but it would even lead to its decline. Prices for local Internet connection are already so high that they represent one of the greatest restraints of Internet development. Their further rise would endanger the entire Internet related business sector, i.e. the professional group of Internet providers, contents providers and last but not least, computing equipment and software manufacturers and resellers. We therefore protest against this price rise as vehemently as possible and we consider it an aggression against one of the world's most progressive forms of communication. The Internet represents one of the ways to increase the general education level, competitiveness of companies and public knowledge. For this reason, its support and development has been assigned special priority in a majority of developed countries. Our country, unfortunately, has taken a different route. Despite the fact that the inaccessibility to the Internet connection, due to its high price (when even an average Internet utilization has significant impact on family budgets) represents the main limiting factor, another price rise is being prepared. We warn against this trend as it would result in being behind the times, in stagnation in the industrial revolution age instead of proceeding to the information revolution age. We do not want to remain at protests and warnings. We hereby appeal to active improvement of the tariff policy. We are convinced that the absence of an acceptable price alternative for small Internet users is a very negative aspect. We therefore ask both the involved Ministries to prepare an alternative of favoured Internet connection over the public telephone network in co-operation with SPT Telecom as soon as possible. The state should take advantage of its (fortunately) still controlling interest in SPT Telecom in order to protect the interests of its citizens. There are several possibilities for settlement of Internet users' specific needs with the economic interests of SPT Telecom. The best solution, according to our opinion, is the establishment of special telephone numbers with different tariff rates, which would be available for Internet connection providers and thus serve for Internet needs. Another alternative proposed for consideration could be the possibility of telephone line connection for a uniform capitation as usual in some developed countries. Any of the proposed solutions would support Internet development. Its consequences would result in improved economical results of SPT Telecom apart from the positive universal impact which should be the primary interest of both Government and monopoly telephone network operator. We hereby appeal to all authorities involved in the preparation of the tariffs rise to be aware of their responsibilities and to consider the existing technically feasible and economically advantageous alternatives. This Petition is not signed only for ourselves, but also on behalf of a wide community of Internet professionals and Internet users. We are ready to co-operate with any competent functionary in favor of a good cause. At the same time we express our resolve not to reconcile with prepared price rise and to utilize all means of protest guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Ivo Lukacovic Ondøej Neff Patrick Zandl _________________ End of petition ____________________________ **************************** Jana Chrzova Executive Director Czech Helsinki Committee P.O.Box 4 Jeleni 5 119 01 Praha 012 - Hrad Czech Republic Tel.: 420-2-2437 2334 Fax : 420-2-2437 2335 Internet: http://www.helcom.cz ********************************* ---------------------------------- Send mail for the 'huridocs-tech' list to 'huridocs-tech@hrea.org'. Mail administrative request to 'majordomo@hrea.org'. For additional assistance, send mail to: 'owner-huridocs-tech@hrea.org'. Archives of previous messages posted to the list can be found at: http://www.human-rights.net/huridocs-tech.
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