jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) (11/20/90)
In article <68873@bu.edu.bu.edu> Jack.Winslade@f666.n285. z1.fidonet.org (Jack Winslade) writes: >This idea was reinforced when an employee of AT&T Long Lines told me >that there was a good chance that after several months, after the >billing tapes were changed several times or something like that, there >was a good chance that the equipment would 'forget' about the >connection and never bill at all, even if/when it was terminated. We weren't doing LD, but... A local eight-line chat system (RoundTable), possibly the first such system in the states, was finally going down. Several of us decided to stay on until the bitter end -- when Ma Bell disconnected service. Disconnection day came and went. We were still on line. If we tried to dial in, we got a "not in service" message. Ten days after SWBT said the service was cancelled, I was the last person on line. (I got disconnected by Houston Looting and Plunder; they can't keep steady power for more than a week or two w/o something going wrong.) So here's the scam: start a number, make a solid connection, then cancel the service. At $100 per installation, you'd have to go four months before you broke even, however... :-) J. Eric Townsend Internet: jet@uh.edu Bitnet: jet@UHOU Systems Manager - University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics - (713) 749-2120 EastEnders list: eastender@karazm.math.uh.edu Skate UNIX(r)