Carol Springs <carols@world.std.com> (06/27/91)
The July issue of {Consumer Reports Travel Letter} contains an article
called "New International Calling Card: Ducking Hotels' Long-Distance
Gouge." The card, Executive TeleCard, can be used to call anywhere in
the world from the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Denmark,
Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the
Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the
United Kingdom. It's also good for calling long distance *within*
most of the countries named.
The Executive Telecard folks provide toll-free and local numbers to
access the service -- they try to maintain some sort of local number
that isn't commonly blocked by hotels in a given area. A PIN entered
from a touch-tone phone can cue the system to what language it needs
to use to prompt you through the rest of the dialing process;
operators are also available. Calls are billed to a regular charge
card. The article doesn't say much about what the rates are like
compared to, say, USA Direct, just that calls on Executive TeleCard
are generally substantially cheaper than hotel-billed calls.
Brief mention is made of the fact that Executive TeleCard works in the
U.S. also, "in case you need to bypass the switchboard of a greedy
domestic hotel that blocks access to your usual long-distance
carrier." (Or maybe when your long distance carrier is blocking phone
card calls to certain countries from certain numbers?) Some sort of
message services are available, presumably similar to those AT&T is
pushing (not very hard) these days.
"Services such as Executive TeleCard and AT&T's USA Direct have grown
up because overseas hotels commonly slap outrageous surcharges -- up
to 500% -- on long-distance calls billed to guests' room phones." The
article mentions the fact that the major long distance carriers in the
U.S. all provide some ability to connect to U.S. operators from
overseas, for no sign-up cost. In contrast, Executive TeleCard
charges a $50/year fee to those who sign up directly. However, the
ability to call between and within countries not one's own, at
reasonable rates, might be worth that much to some travelers. And
some charge cards provide Executive TeleCard as part of their regular
benefits -- as do "some US calling cards" (which?).
In the U.S., the enrollment number for Executive TeleCard is
800-950-3800.
Carol Springs carols@world.std.com