[comp.dcom.telecom] Billing For Forwarded Calls

cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) (10/27/90)

On a normal phone bill, you see calls "to" if you dial direct, and
"from ... to" (or vice versa) for third-party or credit-card
(calling-card) calls, and you get "[collect] from" if you accepted a
collect call?

Now if you call-forward to a number which is long-distance, you are to
see the long-distance charge for a call from your phone to the phone
where you are forwarding to.  How does this appear on your phone bill?
(Lack, for whatever reason, of Caller-ID would prevent you from seeing
the number which called you and got forwarded, right?)


[Moderator's Note: Because it is not a credit card or third-party-pay
call, you would not see the 'from' information. You would merely see a
long distance call at direct dial rates, placed from your line.  PAT] 

dave@westmark.westmark.com (Dave Levenson) (10/27/90)

In article <14047@accuvax.nwu.edu>, cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) writes:

> On a normal phone bill, you see calls "to" if you dial direct, and
> "from ... to" (or vice versa) for third-party or credit-card
> (calling-card) calls, and you get "[collect] from" if you accepted a
> collect call?

> Now if you call-forward to a number which is long-distance, you are to
> see the long-distance charge for a call from your phone to the phone
> where you are forwarding to.  How does this appear on your phone bill?

NJ Bell shows forwarded calls on the phone bill of the party who did
the forwarding.  The calls show up with the keyletter F in the left
margin of the detail bill.  (Other keyletters are used, alone or in
combination, to indicate, for example, an operator-assisted call, a
day-, evening-, or night-rate call.)  The letter F is listed in the
'explanation of symbols' section as 'a Forwarded call'.  They show the
forward-to number as the 'number called'.

A forwarded call produces no display at all on the Caller*ID display
of the party forwarding the call.  The reciepent of the call is shown
the number of the originating, not the forwarding party, with no
indication that the call was forwarded -- i.e. if I receive a call
from A who called B whose calls were forwarded to me, my Caller*ID
display shows A's number.


Dave Levenson			Internet: dave@westmark.com
Westmark, Inc.			UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
Warren, NJ, USA			AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
[The Man in the Mooney]		Voice: 908 647 0900  Fax: 908 647 6857

DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Douglas Scott Reuben) (10/27/90)

Carl Moore recently wrote about distinguishing "Call Forward" calls
from regular toll calls on your phone bill.

Some companies, New York Telephone for example, do indeed have
indicators next to the call "item" (the line that says when/where the
call was made).

On your average NYTel bill, a Call-Forward will be represented by a "
- ", and a Three-Way call will be represented by a " / ". (Since you
obviously aren't charged for getting a call via Call-Waiting, there is
no itemization for that...) I haven't seen one for Speed-Call, but
that's probably not all too necessary.

I've even noticed on NYTel, SNET, Pac*Bell and C&P Telephone (and
probably others too) that if you make a Calling Card or other operator
assisted call from certain hotels or hospitals, a "#" will appear next
to that item. This doesn't seem to work for all hotels, though,
perhaps only those which use AT&T's (or some Bell's) call-accounting
service(s)?

If you use AT&T, most BOCs will put a "*" (or is it a "C"?) next to a
line where you called AT&T and asked for credit. BOCs may do this on
their portion of the bill as well.

Are there any others that I failed to mention? (There are about six
symbols left unused. Maybe some BOC will figure out a use for them! :-) )


Doug

dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu
dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet


[Moderator's Note: There are several symbols the Bell telcos reserve
for use by AT&T, since they do the billing for Mother. Some of the
symbols indicate "Billed as part of Reach Out America, but here is
what the price would be otherwise", "evening discount rate", etc.  PAT]