Sorry, NorthwesTel, I’ll keep that twenty bucks for myself.

Christmas morning: brew coffee, open presents, call umpteen relatives down south.

Apparently others keep the same schedule as "all of our circuits are busy" was all we heard from the telephone yesterday morning.

So, we cranked up Skype on the computer (we have a $30/year Skype Out plan which lets us call any US or Canada phone number) and subsequently paid NorthwesTel a grand total of $0 for about two hours' worth of holiday chatter. The Ottawa call suffered from considerable delay and echo, but the other calls were as clear as a regular phone.

From this, I can make two observations:

1. We need a computer that's as easy to turn on as a telephone. (Or Skype To Go for Canada.)
2. All we want from the telcos is for them to ship our bits. If they won't drop their ridiculous and complex plans, we'll just move to ones-and-zeros traffic until they've no choice.