djcl@contact.uucp (woody) (12/29/90)
[from Bell News, 17 Dec 1990] Independent Operator Companies Confuse Customers OTTAWA - Imagine you are on vacation or a business trip. You call home long distance from your hotel, and when presented with your bill the next morning you find that the total charge for the call amounts to two or three times the Bell Canada rate! Or, suppose you made the call from Ottawa to Montreal, but were billed for a call from Toronto to Montreal. Somebody has made a mistake! Right? Today, probably; but tomorrow, maybe not. "Customers in the United States have been experiencing this type of situation for several years," said Mike Peacocke, director-Policy Development, "and unless some action is taken here, we could be facing the same thing very soon." The root of the problem is the emergence of alternate operator services (AOS) providers. They have been in the U.S. for some time, and, with the relaxation of the rules governing resale by the CRTC earlier this year, they could set up business here as well. Resale is the sale or lease of telecommunications services originally purchased (generally at bulk discount rates) from a telephone company. "AOS firms target mainly pay telephone owners and institutions such as hotels, hospitals and universities," said Peacocke. "They sign contracts with them to handle all operator-assisted calls originating from guests, patients and students, giving these organizations a percentage of the profits. Problems and confusion arise when the callers are billed exorbitant rates for operator-assisted calls, or when the origin of a call appearing on a customer's bill is not what it should be." A Consumer Protection Issue The issue of just what rules Canadian AOS providers should operate under is now before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The company wants safeguards put in place to protect customers from the unfair practices experienced in the U.S.. AOS firms have not been regulated in the United States. As a result, they can charge any price they wish and, in some instances, charge two or three times the rates charged by telephone companies. U.S. customers' complaints about AOS providers have prompted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to review the industry and consider how it should be regulated. On October 17, 1990, the Operator Services Consumer Protection Act was signed by U.S. President Bush. This new law directs the FCC to take immediate action to introduce restrictions on AOS activities and provides for the FCC to set guidelines for rates. "Call Splashing" Causes Nightmares In addition to the issues surrounding AOS rates, the practice of "Call splashing" is also being discussed. As Peacocke explained: "You are in an Ottawa hotel placing a call to Montreal, for example. Your call is forwarded from the hotel via private line facilities to the AOS provider's traffic office in Toronto. You wantr to use your Calling Card [TM] and ask to be transferred to a Bell operator. "The AOS operator transfers you to a Bell operator in Toronto who presumes you're calling from that city, not Ottawa. As a result, you end up being charged for a Toronto-Montreal call. Imagine the billing and collection nightmares that could cause!" Telephone Companies Propose AOS Guidelines So what's the solution to avoiding all of this confusion? According to Peacocke, the solution will be found in making changes to the tariffs governing the use of telecommunications services for resale that would require AOS providers to: * identify themselves to the caller and the accepting party of a collect call at the onset of the call; * after identification, allowing enough time for the caller to terminate the call or be passed on to a Bell operator without charge; * where a call is transferred to a telephone company operator, it must be in the same city to avoid the confusion caused by call splashing; and * provide callers with the option of dialing a Bell operator directly if they wish from locations serviced by AOS operators. "These points were included in our submission to the CRTC," he said. "There are a number of interveners in the proceeding, including several major U.S. AOS companies, and the process will continue until late December. We expect the Commission to issue a decision early next year."