phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) (11/30/90)
The {St. Louis Post Dispatch} this morning carries a story about
William Outten, the owner of an answering service in surburban St.
Louis who is now offering "free" long distance calls from Jefferson
county into St. Louis.
Utilizing a scheme often mentioned here, he has been leasing lines
which allow unlimited calling into St. Louis and then allowing his
customers to connect with them with three-way calling. He originally
was charging his customers $.03/min while SWBT charges .30 for the
first min and .17 for each additional meeting. According to the Post
he was collecting $2,500/mo from his customers and paying Bell $700.
The PSC stopped this practice in September and are now seeking a court
order to stop the current practice.
Outten claims that now he is not offering telephone service and that
he should be treated no differently than anyone else who utilizes
three-way calling. The PSC accuses him of "blatently skirting" state
regulations.
It is not clear whether the equipment utilized to make the connections
is commercially available equipment or of Outten's own design. He is
described as a "telephone nut" and the equipment as a circuit the size
of a sheet of paper contained within a toolbox bolted to the wall in
his answering service. He describes it as "This is something you
don't learn in college."
A decison is expected next week.
J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067
Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110
phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - Internet (314) 362-3617
uunet!wuarchive!wubios!phil - UUCP (314)362-2693(FAX) C90562JM@WUVMD - bitnetcarroll@cs.washington.edu (Jeff Carroll) (12/15/90)
In article <15114@accuvax.nwu.edu> phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) writes: >The {St. Louis Post Dispatch} this morning carries a story about >William Outten, the owner of an answering service in surburban St. >Louis who is now offering "free" long distance calls from Jefferson >county into St. Louis. An acquaintance of ours who is well known in the Seattle area as a telecom entrepreneur was recently unsuccessful in his efforts to lobby the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission for permission to operate this sort of business. I don't know the details. My wife speaks to this fellow much more often than I do, and she's not well versed in the technology. Jeff Carroll carroll@atc.boeing.com
Tad.Cook@cs.washington.edu (12/18/90)
In article <15421@accuvax.nwu.edu>, bcsaic!carroll@cs.washington.edu (Jeff Carroll) writes: > In article <15114@accuvax.nwu.edu> phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip > Miller) writes: > >The {St. Louis Post Dispatch} this morning carries a story about > >William Outten, the owner of an answering service in surburban St. > >Louis who is now offering "free" long distance calls from Jefferson > >county into St. Louis. > An acquaintance of ours who is well known in the Seattle area > as a telecom entrepreneur was recently unsuccessful in his efforts to > lobby the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission for > permission to operate this sort of business. > I don't know the details. My wife speaks to this fellow much > more often than I do, and she's not well versed in the technology. I know who this is. A local dial-a-porn operator (in fact, they are one of the largest in the USA) was operating a service that was very popular with folks in the suburbs. Seattle has very wide Extended Area Service. From my house in the city I can call almost to Tacoma and Everett, and many miles east, at no charge. But folks outside of the city who I can call, many of whom are served by GTE, have very limited calling. So what this "telecom entrepeneur" did was start charging for a service that I have done casually for my friends ever since I got residential Centrex. What he did was ordered up a few lines in the city that had the ability to do Call Transfer. He sells account numbers to folks in the suburbs. They call his number, his box answers with a tone, they dial their PIN followed by the number they want to call (which is non-toll from the box, but toll from the suburbs). Then the box does a hookswitch flash, gets second dial tone, dials the number and hangs up, and bills the account 10 cents for the call attempt. When he started this service, customers got billed for each attempt. I heard that after awhile the box was modified to listen for ringback and busy tone, and stayed on the line long enough to determine whether or not to bill. This must have been a little tricky, because what does it do if the called party answers before the first ring? Of course this was a goldmine for our friend, and hell for the telco. With only one line, the box could process LOTS of calls, because the calls do not tie up the line. As soon as one call is transferred, the line is ready for the next call. GTE hated it because they were losing toll from the suburbs. US West hated it, because this thing was tieing up one incoming and one outgoing trunk with each call. Eventually they got the PUC to change the tarrif so that they were paying for each call on these lines. You can still do this without paying the new tarrif, as long as you are not selling the service. Which makes me wonder ... could I legally set up a CO-OP here in the city to help my friends in the suburbs with this? Tad Cook Seattle, WA Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA Phone: 206/527-4089 MCI Mail: 3288544 Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW USENET:...uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!ssc!tad or, tad@ssc.UUCP