[comp.dcom.telecom] Equal Access on College Campus?

watcher@ndmath.math.nd.edu> (09/23/90)

Here at Notre Dame (I don't go to school here, just visit), all the
telephone service in dormitories is handled by CTI (meaning
CTI-installed switches and CTI-provided 1+ long distance). Apparently
students can't get AT&T (or other) long distance provided via 1+; they
have to place operator-assisted calls (and pay rates for same). Is
this strictly legal? I haven't checked to see whether 10XXX dialing is
permitted, but I would gather that it is not, given the state of
affairs. Can anything be done about this, considering that it is
indeed a campus, and as such the facilities are either privately owned
or in some other sort of legal grey area which exempts them from
having to provide Equal Access?


James Watcher (yes, that's what it says on my driver's license!)
nstar!watcher@ndmath.math.nd.edu (fast)
PO Box 875  Notre Dame, IN 46556 (slow)


[Moderator's Note: Not long ago a thread here in the Digest discussed
blocking of 10xxx from privately owned switches. I maintained it was
not legal to block access (after all, the court order called for it to
work that way), and a couple special issues of the Digest were devoted
to rebuttals from folks saying they should have the right to run their
switches the way they wanted. That's where it seems to stand at this
point. A university would seem to be a re-seller of long distance
service (except for its own administrative calls) and probably would
be in a different category than a business in which all the long
distance calls placed were presumably administrative, or business
related.  PAT]

dittman@skbat.csc.ti.com (Eric Dittman) (09/25/90)

> Here at Notre Dame (I don't go to school here, just visit), all the
> telephone service in dormitories is handled by CTI (meaning
> CTI-installed switches and CTI-provided 1+ long distance). Apparently
> students can't get AT&T (or other) long distance provided via 1+; they
> have to place operator-assisted calls (and pay rates for same). Is
> this strictly legal? I haven't checked to see whether 10XXX dialing is
> permitted, but I would gather that it is not, given the state of
> affairs. Can anything be done about this, considering that it is
> indeed a campus, and as such the facilities are either privately owned
> or in some other sort of legal grey area which exempts them from
> having to provide Equal Access?

My brother attends the University of Alabama and they have MCI.  To
save money he usually calls my parents collect, but when he calls me,
he calls direct unless there's an emergency, because I don't accept
any non-emergency calls from MCI or Sprint.  If he does call direct, I
just get the number he's at and call him back.  He's tried 10XXX
before without success.


Eric Dittman    Texas Instruments - Component Test Facility
dittman@skitzo.csc.ti.com    dittman@skbat.csc.ti.com

Disclaimer:  I don't speak for Texas Instruments or the Component Test
             Facility.  I don't even speak for myself.


[Moderator's Note: A couple times I have inadvertently accepted
collect calls which arrived via Sprint or MCI. Talk about a ripoff!
The bill was unbelievable. When you get a collect call, *always*
before accepting ask the operator 'who are you', and request time and
charges afterward.  Avoid surprises later on!   PAT]

smk@attunix.att.com (S M Krieger) (09/25/90)

> Here at Notre Dame (I don't go to school here, just visit), all the
> telephone service in dormitories is handled by CTI (meaning
> CTI-installed switches and CTI-provided 1+ long distance). Apparently
> students can't get AT&T (or other) long distance provided via 1+; they
> have to place operator-assisted calls (and pay rates for same).

At West Chester University, where my daughter is enrolled, there is
also no 1+ calling allowed.  The phone system does support 10XXX LD
carrier selection (i.e., after "9" to get an outside line, 10XXX can
be dialed before the "0"; I have verified that it ends up going to the
selected LD company).

What I did to help ease the cost is to sign up for Reach Out America
and paid the extra $2.00 for the calling card option.  As I understand
the way it works, the time we can make the cheapest interstate calls
is pushed back to 10 pm, and any interstate calling card call made
during the plan's hours do not include the 80 cents surcharge.  All I
asked my daughter to do was to find out if her friends' parents won't
mind their phones ringing at 10:10 pm.

(Disclaimer: what I am posting about Reach Out America is based
solely on my being an AT&T customer.  Although I am an employee of
AT&T, my work is entirely with UNIX System V development and does
not involve any of the company's long distance telephone business).


Stan Krieger
Summit, NJ
 ...!att!attunix!smk