henry@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Henry Mensch) (10/31/86)
I've just received my NET Calling Card; there are spaces on the front for a "Calling Card Number" and a "International Number" but only the Calling Card Number is filled in. Are International Numbers used anymore? -- Henry Mensch / <henry@athena.mit.edu>
mcb@styx.UUCP (Michael C. Berch) (11/03/86)
henry@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Henry Mensch) writes: > I've just received my NET Calling Card; there are spaces on the front > for a "Calling Card Number" and a "International Number" but only the > Calling Card Number is filled in. Are International Numbers used > anymore? I don't know what the official situation is, but I was in Japan about a year ago and tried to call the US on my PacBell Calling Card, but KDD (the primary Japanese international carrier) declined to accept the "International Number" but was willing to accept the (normal) calling card number. I ended up not using it anyway since the hotel operator warned me that for some reason that particular hotel charged a service fee for credit card calls (including foreign cards) but not for collect calls, so I called collect. Michael C. Berch ARPA: (for now) mcb@lll-crg.arpa UUCP: ...!lll-lcc!styx!mcb ...!lll-crg!styx!mcb ...!ihnp4!styx!mcb
M.JSOL@DEEP-THOUGHT.MIT.EDU (Jon Solomon) (11/03/86)
You need to get an AT&T or SPRINT credit card to make international calls from outside your home. International service is considered competitive, like intra-US, inter LATA long distance is.
johnl@ima.UUCP (11/03/86)
In response to the person who wondered why his New England Tel calling card had a space for the international number, but no number there -- it turns out that calling card numbers are assigned by the local operating companies, and then given to AT&T. You actually have two calling cards. Your local telco calling card is used for intra-lata calls, even outside your local company's territory, and your AT&T card is used for inter-lata and international calls. Since the two cards have the same number, this distinction makes little difference except for which page of the phone bill the calls show up on. The international number is slightly different from the domestic number, presumably because it has to adhere to some CCITT standard. Since the local telco's card isn't useful for international calls and AT&T's is, the international number now appears only on the AT&T card. Something I do not understand at all is MCI's calling card scheme. It appears that they are making up their own calling card numbers which are in the same format as telco numbers (generally your 10-digit phone number followed by a four-digit PIN) but the number is different. This is a huge pain. It seems to me that if the local telcos can supply calling card numbers to AT&T, they should equally well be able to provide them to MCI and other carriers. If MCI used the regular numbers, then anybody who had a calling card could use MCI pay phones in airports without having to slide through a Visa card, which would be a big marketing advantage over the current scheme. I also note that MCI almost has 0+number working -- if I dial 0+number from my MCI subscribed line it sometimes gives me a recording encouraging me to dial my MCI card number, although dialing the card number doesn't work. John Levine, ima!johnl or Levine@YALE.somethingorother