weave@chopin.udel.edu (Ken Weaverling) (03/18/91)
*** Caller ID Arrives April 1st ***
Diamond State (of Bell Atlantic) will introduce Caller*ID to most of
its customers on April 1st for a charge of $6.50/month. Per-use call
blocking is also available for all customers at no charge, as mandated
by the Public Utilities Commission.
*** Exchange (302) 653 May Get Unlimited State Wide Calling ***
At the beginning of this year, Diamond State expanded unlimited local
calling areas to be county-wide. (Delaware has three counties.)
Unfortunately, the telephone companies idea of a county line differs
from the physical county lines.
Exchange 653 is Smyrna, part of Kent County. A few thousand residents
of far southern New Castle County have 653 phone numbers. Many of
these residents commute to Wilmington (Delaware's largest city) and
were led to believe that they could now call toll free to this area.
Residents of this area have complained to the PUC. A hearing has been
scheduled. Some of the possible compromises suggested include allowing
653 to call toll free to New Castle County but calls FROM New Castle
to 653 would be toll calls. Another solution is to allow 653 customers
to obtain state-wide unlimited calling for $3.00/month.
The latter plan would be viewed as an experiment. The PUC has been
pushing Diamond State to offer toll-free calling state-wide anyway.
*** Wilmington Pay Phones Cause Controversy ***
Up until last year, the city of Wilmington had emergency call boxes on
almost every corner. The city, citing high costs, decided to have all
of the call boxes replaced with Public Telephones, each with prominent
signs indicating that 911 calls are free. This seemed like a sound
idea at the time since the public would have additional pay phones,
the public could still reach the police for free, and the city would
eliminate a large expense.
The plan was implemented and now Wilmington has pay phones on almost
every city street corner. Some residents, however, are not pleased at
all. They claim that the phones attract drug dealers who conduct their
deals over the phones. They are petitioning the city to remove the
phones, citing that most residents have their own private phones and
therefore, pay phones are not required in residential areas.
The good news is that all of the phones are genuine Bell Atlantic
phones, and all seem to have LD service designated to AT&T. Also, the
incidence of vandalism on these phones is very low. (Perhaps since the
dealers don't want to damage the tools of their business :-)
*** Local Paper Supports Proposed 900 Legislation -- Almost ***
Delaware's largest newspaper, the {News-Journal}, spoke out in favor
of proposed 900 legislation in their editorial of 18 March 1991, with
one exception.
The paper noted that there are legitimate services and reasons for
900, including the few 900 numbers that the paper themselves offer,
but they also mentioned the phone-sex industry where "callers must go
through 900 number 'teaser' calls followed by a pitch for a live
conversation with the tart of your dreams charged to your credit
card."
The paper supports an announcement of charges, warnings to minors, a
chance to hang up after the announcement with no charge, and free 900
blocking to private phones.
They do NOT support the provision that would prohibit phone companies
for disconnecting service for non-payment of 900 charges. They cite
that there are "too many avenues for abuse" if this occurs.baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten) (03/22/91)
Ken Weaverling (weave@chopin.udel.edu) writes: > The good news is that all of the phones are genuine Bell Atlantic > phones, and all seem to have LD service designated to AT&T. Also, the > incidence of vandalism on these phones is very low. (Perhaps since the > dealers don't want to damage the tools of their business :-) You're not kidding. During the New York Telephone strike last year, finding a working pay phone in lower Manhattan was more difficult than finding a shred of logic in your phone bill. But in my neighborhood, on a certain street corner, were not one but TWO working pay phones. Pay phones that worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Zero downtime. Phones that, to my knowledge, have NEVER BEEN OUT OF ORDER. Mere chance, you say? No, just good ole' American capitalism at work. Steve Baumgarten Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York, NY