31.   Paller said Internet providers could safely disable SNMP until a patch is available, but may have difficulty billing their customers.

32.   For customers to pay bills by electronic check, merchants, credit card companies and utilities must agree to bill customers electronically and accept electronic checks.

33.   Residential customers would be billed at several rates based on how much power they use.

34.   Then they use old-fashioned meter readings to bill their customers.

35.   America Online also agreed to improved disclosures of how it bills customers using its computer service, according to the lawyers.

36.   Residential customers would be billed once every six months while the commercial, industrial and government sectors would be billed on a monthly basis, he added.