DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Douglas Scott Reuben) (02/05/91)
Note: This is NOT another "new"/"old" Calling Card system post! :) :) I got my phone bill today, and took a comparative look at the local and LD sections: -A 1 minute call (11:30PM) from Reading, PA (215-373-9??? -payphone) to New Castle, DE (302-740-7626), with my calling card, was $1.18, via "Bell Atlantic" (or really Bell Of PA). This was the "default" which the payphone used, naturally. -The same call the next day, from the same payphone, to the same DE number, at 12AM, was only $.12 cents on my Reach Out America Plan. If I did not have the plan, it would have been $.92. (Note that this is between two states, 1so ROA's Calling Card discount is applicable.) Why would Bell of PA charge MORE for a call than AT&T, in between TWO states? (and not IN-State). IE, in an area where there is competition, as in the NY/NJ corridor, NY Tel and NJ Bell charge LESS than AT&T (not including ROA). NJ Bell even "makes" itself the default carrier from its payphones on all calls which it is allowed to handle to NYC. It would seem to be that either there is a VERY low volume of calls between PA and DE that Bell O' PA doesn't mind this business going over to AT&T, or no one told them about this! Is it as strange with 1+ calls as well? So much for rational toll pricing ... (not that it was ever all that great to begin with ...) Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu // dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet
nol2105%dsacg2.dsac.dla.mil@dsac.dla.mil (Robert E. Zabloudil) (02/15/91)
In article <16677@accuvax.nwu.edu> DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Douglas Scott Reuben) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 92, Message 6 of 12 > -A 1 minute call (11:30PM) from Reading, PA (215-373-9??? -payphone) > to New Castle, DE (302-740-7626), with my calling card, was $1.18, via > "Bell Atlantic" (or really Bell Of PA). This was the "default" which > the payphone used, naturally. > -The same call the next day, from the same payphone, to the same DE > number, at 12AM, was only $.12 cents on my Reach Out America Plan. If > I did not have the plan, it would have been $.92. (Note that this is > between two states, 1so ROA's Calling Card discount is applicable.) > Why would Bell of PA charge MORE for a call than AT&T, in between TWO > states? (and not IN-State). Was this call by chance totally within your BoPA LATA? They can cross state lines occasionally (NW Bell has one in four states). I can make a one-minute call from Columbus to Johnstown, OH, as a 1+ call for 19 cents, evening rate; the same call costs 14 cents if I dial it 10288-1+. Not exactly analagous, to be sure. Bob Zabloudil rzabloudil@dsac.dla.mil std.disclaimer disclaimed [Moderator's Note: Where I've seen some bizarre ways of dialing is by using Telecom*USA's 'local calling via 700' option. That carrier allows purely local, intra-lata calls by using 1-700-desired number in place of your local area code. In other words, as a Telecom*USA customer I can dial locally 368-8000 or I can route through Telecom dialing 10835-1-700-368-8000, where 700 is presumed to mean 'the area code you are calling from now'. How they get away with it I don't know; but they have offered it for several years. PAT]