dhepner@hpcuhc.cup.hp.com (Dan Hepner) (09/21/90)
From: vic@cs.arizona.edu (Vicraj T. Thomas) >I was in the transit lounge of the Tokyo airport this summer >and wanted to call somebody in the city. I didn't have any yen with >me but I did have my AT&T calling card. [...] Here's a story from Narita (Tokyo International). I changed flights from a direct from Seoul to San Francisco, to a flight with a stopover in Narita, and a different arrival time. I was being met on arrival, and had to phone the modified arrival time home. There were pay phones all around, at least one of which was labeled with an "international" designation. Right above it was the dialing sequence for some 900# to get weather in New York, so you could tell what digits to dial. I _knew_ that calls from Japan were expensive, so I got $10 worth of Yen (1200 then) and prepared to spend it all on a quick call home. After getting to the phone, I started to put one Y100 coin (88c) into the slot, but a Japanese person nearby pointed to the sign suggesting that it took only Y10 to use the phone. Well, I went ahead and put in my Y100 coin in, dialed as suggested, it rang ... normal 45 second conversation ... hangup, all the time waiting for a demand for another Y1000 or so. It never happened. The whole call cost 88c. Now what happened there? Do coin calls from Japan really only cost Y100? Did I somehow rip them off? For all I know, I should have listened to the local and only used Y10. Dan Hepner dhepner@hpda.cup.hp.com
jimmy@denwa.info.com (Jim Gottlieb) (09/27/90)
In article <12404@accuvax.nwu.edu> dhepner@hpcuhc.cup.hp.com (Dan Hepner) writes: >Here's a story from Narita (Tokyo International). >it rang ... normal 45 second >conversation ... hangup, all the time waiting for a demand for another >Y1000 or so. It never happened. The whole call cost 88c. >Now what happened there? Do coin calls from Japan really only cost >Y100? Unlike the ridiculous $9.75 for the first three minutes that is demanded from AT&T-served public phones, NTT's will charge you 100 yen per X seconds where X varies due to time of day, location, and the overseas carrier you select. So yes, it is very possible that a 45 second call would cost you only 100 yen. Sometimes I'm able to check my Los Angeles voice mail for only 100 smackeroos. >For all I know, I should have >listened to the local and only used Y10. No. An international call will not complete unless there is at least 100 yen in the hopper or at least ten units left on an inserted telephone card.