greg%turbo.atl.ga.us@mathcs.emory.edu (Greg Montgomery) (09/03/90)
I have been reading this newsgroup for a little while, and I see many
messages with stuff about COCOTs in them, but I can't figure out what
one is ... Would someone please tell me what a COCOT is?
Thanks.
Greg Montgomery Internet: greg@turbo.atl.ga.us
UUCP (smart): greg@turbo.UUCP
UUCP (route): {rutgers,ogcise,gatech}!emory!turbo!greg
[Moderator's Note: COCOT = Customer Owned, Coin Operated Telephone.
Some say it in reverse. They are the privately owned payphones you see
springing up everywhere. A good reference to the many acronyms we use
here all the time is found in three glossary files in the Telecom
Archives. Look for the files 'glossary.xxxxx' The Telecom Archives is
accessed by ftp at lcs.mit.edu. Use regular ftp commands; i.e. login
anonymous; give user@site.name for password, then 'cd telecom-archives'
and make your selection from the nine years of Digests on line and the
many other files of interest. Non-Internet users can access the
archives via the archives mail server: bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu. PAT]Dan_Bloch@transarc.com (09/05/90)
> I have been reading this newsgroup for a little while, and I see many > messages with stuff about COCOTs in them, but I can't figure out what > one is ... Would someone please tell me what a COCOT is? > [Moderator's Note: COCOT = Customer Owned, Coin Operated Telephone. > Some say it in reverse. They are the privately owned payphones you see > springing up everywhere. I've also been reading this newsgroup for a little while, and I'd figured out what COCOT stands for, and I've gathered that the general opinion on this bboard is that they're a crime against humanity. I'm still unclear on exactly what they can do to me, e.g. if I use one to make a calling card call with an AT&T calling card. So what kind of stuff do they do? Thanks, Dan Bloch dan@transarc.com [Moderator's Note: For starters, they typically charge rates much higher than payphones operated by telco. They rip you off on long distance calls; they disable the keypad after you connect to a number, making it impossible to use them when calling pagers, etc. They accept your AT&T card for calls, pretend to connect you to an AT&T operator, then send you an outrageous bill for the call. PAT]
swu@seeker.uucp (Shawn Wu) (09/12/90)
In article <11701@accuvax.nwu.edu> you write: [deleted body of post by dan@transarc.com, why negative opinion of COCOT?] >[Moderator's Note: For starters, they typically charge rates much >higher than payphones operated by telco. They rip you off on long >distance calls; they disable the keypad after you connect to a number, >making it impossible to use them when calling pagers, etc. They accept >your AT&T card for calls, pretend to connect you to an AT&T operator, >then send you an outrageous bill for the call. PAT] I had one that would disconnect if a key on the keypad was pressed after a connection had been made, making it impossible for me to enter my AT&T number. I tried to have an operator charge the call to my card, and the COCOT disconnected just as I was about to give her the card number! I didn't have any change at the time, which is why I had to use my card in the first place. Fortunately, someone was able to direct me to a genuine PacTel payphone in a nearby restaurant. Shawn Wu swu@seer.UUCP ...!uunet!seeker!seer!swu