arnold@gatech.UUCP (Barkeep) (07/05/84)
[Nuke the Jacksons!]
Ok, folks, here's an interesting one for y'all. Southern Bell has started
telling us that we may now choose a default long distance company, other
than good old ATT. I.e., you can choose who you'll get when you dial 1
and/or 0. This will work for both dial (pulse) and touch tone phones.
So, (despite the gratitude we owe ATT for inventing UNIX :-) what long distance
phone company should I go with? Do any of them supply operator assistance?
What is the quality of the connection I'll get? etc...
Personnally, I think replies should go to the net, since this will be happening
soon all across the country, if it hasn't started already (apologies to the
folks in Europe.... Do they get this group?).
Thanks,
--
Arnold Robbins
CSNET: arnold@gatech ARPA: arnold%gatech.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa
UUCP: { akgua, allegra, ihnp4 }!gatech!arnold
Save the Arithmetic IF!mp@coke.UUCP (07/07/84)
< This bug for a cheap phone call! >
I thought it was very interesting when Southern Bell (via a BellSouth)
spokesman announced that they will allow the customer to choose which
long-didstance service to attach to. I wonder how they are going to
handle it. What happens if your choice of long distance company is
not AT&T, can you still recieve operator assisted calls from AT&T
(e.g.: collect, person to person, etc.)? If your choice of Long Distance
company does not offer directory assistance for other cities, can you
still use AT&T?
I guess by my questions, I am saying AT&T might be the best of all the outside
services. However, they are not the cheapest! I use Sprint for all my
long distance calls. Sprint does not have operator assistance or directory
assistance, but my long distance phone bill is much less than if I used
Southern Bell (for my calls to Atlanta and other parts in Georgia). After
using Sprint for 6 months, I figured I saved over 25% on the calls I made.
But, it doesn't have directory assistance or operator assistance.
--
Scott A. Barman USPS: Department of Computer Science
UUCP: {akgua, gatech}!ganehd!mp The University of Georgia
DDD: (404) 542-2911 415 Boyd Graduate Studies Research Ctr.
Athens, Georgia 30602heneghan@ihuxa.UUCP (Joe Heneghan) (07/09/84)
This reply only represents my personal view and is unbiased even though I am employed by AT&T. In considering long distance service, there are some important variables to consider: 1. Does your non AT&T carrier have service to cities you will be talking to. Otherwise, you may be paying connect charges for interim connects. 2. Do they have all of the services of AT&T ? 3. Check prices.
alb@alice.UUCP (07/13/84)
You will only get the services (e.g. operators, etc.) that your LD company offers. If they don't have operators, you don't get operator service. AT&T may be a bit more expensive, but they offer all the services. Why should you get to use their operators if you subscribe to MCI or Sprint?
hosking@convex.UUCP (07/17/84)
#R:gatech:-860800:convex:57100006:000:748 convex!hosking Jul 16 17:31:00 1984 Personal experience with MCI is that transmission quality tends to be inferior to Bell's when calling certain parts of the country. For example, Texas to Mass. calls with MCI seem to be substantially noisier than the same call with Bell. This is an annoyance for normal conversation, but could be a big problem for data transmissions, etc. What it really boils down to is what sort of tradeoffs are you willing to make in terms of price/signal quality ? There's no such thing as a free lunch. If optimum signal quality is a big concern, you're going to have to pay for it. If the primary concern is money, you may have to be willing to accept less than desirable signal quality sometimes - whether you use MCI, Bell, or any other company.
stv@qantel.UUCP (Steve Vance) (07/24/84)
> > Ok, folks, here's an interesting one for y'all. Southern Bell has started > telling us that we may now choose a default long distance company, other > than good old ATT. I.e., you can choose who you'll get when you dial 1 > and/or 0. This will work for both dial (pulse) and touch tone phones. > So, (despite the gratitude we owe ATT for inventing UNIX :-) what long > distance phone company should I go with? Do any of them supply operator > assistance? What is the quality of the connection I'll get? etc... This concept has been part of the AT&T divestiture almost from the start. You will someday be asked who you want as your default long-distance phone company, and any direct-dialed calls you make from then on are handed off to that company automatically--you just dial the number (for example: 1-415-555-1212) and Sprint or MCI (or whichever of the 200 or so long-distance providers registered with the FCC you specify) will bill you for the call. The BOCs (local phone companies) are required to provide room in their billing envelopes to the LDCs (Long-Distance Companies) for the sheet containing your long distance charges for the month (the way AT&T does now), but I hear that the larger companies would much rather continue to send their own bills, though I'm not sure why. You can specify AT&T to be your default long-distance provider, as they now are, and nothing will change with your phone service. If you do not respond to the request that you specify a default long-distance provider, AT&T will continue to be your default, although you can change this at any time. Some BOCs are planning to offer a "Cheapest Routing" option, where each call is handed off to the LDC with the lowest rate for that particular call, with the BOC adding a very small surcharge for this service. Even when you have picked a default LDC, it will be easier to make calls using other LDCs. Each LDC will be assigned a code number, like "0100" for AT&T, "0101" for Sprint, "0102" for MCI, etc. When you want a call to go with a company other than your default LDC, you can just insert the code number between the "1" and the rest of the number, and that call will be handed to the LDC corresponding to that code number. Say, for example, you're making an important cross country modem call, and you want to use AT&T for this call. You would dial 1-0100-202-555-1212, and that call would be placed with AT&T, even though your default LDC is MCI (for example). In this regard, you can see that you can still use AT&T for operator-assisted calls, even if they're not your default LDC. They already surcharge accordingly for these operator-assisted services. Other LDCs are free to provide operator-assisted services, though I haven't heard any announce plans to do so. As to quality of service, this changes every day, so the two articles Consumer Reports has done are way out-of-date. A friend of mine that works at Sprint says that they have completely ripped out all of their call-handling hardware and replaced it with new equipment three times in the last five years, and MCI spokespeople are always talking about how far behind the state-of-the-art AT&Ts equipment is. With this new system of code numbers for each LDC, you will be able to experiment with different companies. I suspect that there will be little difference between the quality of service (or the price!) of the top five or six companies after a couple of years. Steve Vance {ucbvax,ihnp4,zehntel,onyx}!dual!qantel!stv Qantel Corporation, Hayward, CA
rwh@exodus.UUCP (Roy Haas) (07/27/84)
Two points need to be clarified regarding Steve Vance's article. 1) Most other Long Distance Companies will do their own billing becae they have to contract with the BOCs ( i.e., pay for it ) for the BOCs to do the billing. 2) If you do not pick a primary LDC, then Judge Greene ruled that undesignated inter-LATA calls could be routed to AT&T, blocked, or allocated. I have heard that at least one BOC will use an allocation scheme based on the proportions of calls going to each carrier ( for calls that *did* designate a default LDC ) and there was at least one BOC that was planning on blocking ( if you don't pick a carrier, you don't get any ), but I don't know for certain whether they still plan to. Anyway, don't assume that AT&T will automatically be the default carrier. The best way to find out what the default treatment in your local area is will be to contact your local telephone company if they haven't informed you already. Roy Haas Bell Communications Research Holmdel, NJ Disclaimer: the above are my personal opinions, etc., etc., etc.