STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
STANFORD MEDICAL CENTER
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA 94304

DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS Area Code qty

Professor Joshua Lederberg I-00

Mr. H. I. Romnes

Chairman of the board

American Telephone & Telegraph
195 broadway

New York, N.Y.

Dear Sir:

I would be grateful to you for information you may have available

on: Coe @ TF wccar ag A Ett Peon flare Wad S.)

~ ~ fe - of

Did you submit a technical brief. to detail your concerns about the
unrestrained of customer-owned apparatus to the telephone systen?.
we r
Che EAR Os ~ 4

In view. of the very wide variation in quality of communication that

I experience in calling long-distance, it occurs to me that the

main problem may be exactly the converse. If you establish speci-
fications for customer connections, there will also be implied speci-
fications for the communication bandwidth over the system, and you
will be subject to verifiable complaints about the lower wings of the
distribution of the service you sell. Naturally, as a publically
regulated utility, uxt any enhancement of the wordt-case service

will only become possible by compensating rates; I also perceive

your horror at the possible evolution of pressures to charge for

the actual service delivered-- i.e., @ custoner who gets a noisy
line would be charged accordingly less for his call, with a large
fuss and overhead to measure that quality.

Do you have any comment on these concerns; are they included in your
briefs?

    

Thank you, fe
i
i A A

Ftd Rn SM
/ Joshua Lederber t
LY B UV

NOTE: I write a weekly column on "Science and Man" for the Washington
Post and affiliated newspapers. Your information may be helpful
to me in drafting future columns.