john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (12/16/90)
Remember back around August of 1989 when Pac*Bell hustled its new
"regulatory" package through the CPUC? Among other things, in exchange
for what is euphamistically described as "streamlined regulation" the
company promised a wider local calling area and the elimination of
touch tone charges.
Oh, you notice that you are STILL paying for touch tone? And you
notice that you STILL pay through the nose for calls in the 9-12 mile
department? That's not a mistake; you are still paying. And you will
continue to pay for touch tone until February of 1991. And you will
still continue to pay for "Zone 2" calls until June of 1991, nearly
two years after Pac*Bell got what it wanted from the PUC.
Just keep all this in mind the next time Pac*Bell wants something from
the PUC and promises something in return. Except for the billing
department, things have a tendancy to move quite slowly at the living
telephone museum.
John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !ceb@csli.stanford.edu (Charles Buckley) (12/18/90)
John Higdon wrote: >Remember back around August of 1989 when Pac*Bell hustled its new >"regulatory" package through the CPUC? <remainder of well-aimed Higdon electronic bomb to Pac Bell deleted> In another bit of PacBell stupidity, I recently tried to get distinctive ringing on my single line (no, it's too much trouble to get two) so people could send me faxes. Found the detector box and all that, and I call up PacBell, where I am told that I can't get distinctive ringing unless I get a service package called ComStar Plus (or something like that), which required, in addition to buying speed dial and other things I don't want, that I get two lines (not two numbers, but two lines!). Is this Catch-22 idiocy nationwide, or is it only PacBell that has this problem? [Moderator's Note: ComStar, also known as Intellidial in some areas and Starline in others is tariffed as a service for 2 or more actual lines in a group. Many or most of the features in ComStar would not work with just one line. In fact having only two lines makes ComStar a little bit of an overkill. It may be that PacBell only has Distinctive Ringing available through ComStar at present. I know Illinois Bell could not offer Distinctive Ringing until recently when they upgraded their software. They did offer it in Centrex and Starline service, but not on single residential lines until ahout two months ago. PAT]