forrette@cory.berkeley.edu (Steve Forrette) (01/07/91)
This recent talk about sent-paid coin calls got me thinking about rates. I did a little investigation, and here's what I found. For a call from 415-841 to 206-324, the initial rate for direct dial from home was $.14 (over AT&T, evening rate). AT&T Calling Card was $.94, but sent-paid AT&T from a Bell phone was $1.95 for the same first minute! Doesn't that seem a bit high? I would imagine it would be higher than direct dial from home, but more than double the calling card rate? I mean, I'm paying cash up front, am I not? No credit risk. I'm sure that Pacific Bell charges a certain amount for the coin collection services, but this seems outlandish. Anyone know why it's like this?
john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (01/09/91)
Steve Forrette <forrette@cory.berkeley.edu> writes: > but sent-paid AT&T from a Bell phone was $1.95 for the same first > minute! Doesn't that seem a bit high? I would imagine it would be > higher than direct dial from home, but more than double the calling > card rate? I mean, I'm paying cash up front, am I not? No credit If you check that again, you will probably find that the initial coin rate is for three minutes, not one minute. For a while, coin-paid calls had an initial one minute rate and it was changed back to three minutes "for your convenience". The explanation was that most calls lasted at least that long and they wanted to minimize the additional deposit requests. Actually, it undoubtedly enhanced revenues in that larger amounts could be collected for short calls. In any event, I also have always questioned the higher rates for coin-collected calls. The stock explanation is that you are paying for the instant convenience of making a call without prior arrangement. (Someone has to pay to maintain the phone.) So apparently, you are paying for convenience, and the lack of credit risk is irrelavent. Not that I buy any of that, but that is the reasoning. Tomorrow I leave for Japan. It will be interesting to observe first-hand how they handle coin phones there. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
forrette@cory.berkeley.edu (Steve Forrette) (01/11/91)
In article <15907@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon writes: >Steve Forrette <forrette@cory.berkeley.edu> writes: >> but sent-paid AT&T from a Bell phone was $1.95 for the same first >> minute! Doesn't that seem a bit high? I would imagine it would be >> higher than direct dial from home, but more than double the calling >> card rate? I mean, I'm paying cash up front, am I not? No credit >If you check that again, you will probably find that the initial coin >rate is for three minutes, not one minute. For a while, coin-paid >calls had an initial one minute rate and it was changed back to three >minutes "for your convenience". The explanation was that most calls >lasted at least that long and they wanted to minimize the additional >deposit requests. Actually, it undoubtedly enhanced revenues in that >larger amounts could be collected for short calls. I just tried it again, and it is definately for one minute. >In any event, I also have always questioned the higher rates for >coin-collected calls. The stock explanation is that you are paying for >the instant convenience of making a call without prior arrangement. >(Someone has to pay to maintain the phone.) So apparently, you are >paying for convenience, and the lack of credit risk is irrelavent. >Not that I buy any of that, but that is the reasoning. The operator tried to give me the line that the charge helped maintain the phone. I challenged her with the fact that this was a semi-public phone and that my living group paid Pacific Bell $30 a month to have it there. Her answers quickly dried up. Also, if the phone was so costly to maintain, why don't calling card calls have such a high surcharge as well? Another possible answer that has been offerred is that it is very costly to send people out to collect the coins. But, Pacific Bell is already sending people out each month to collect all of the $.20 deposits for local calls, so AT&T has no reason to charge for this. I imagine that Pacific Bell charges AT&T something for the coin collection services, but I don't think it is as outlandish as $1.50 per call or anything like that. >Tomorrow I leave for Japan. It will be interesting to observe >first-hand how they handle coin phones there. Probably better than in the US! :-(