bill@eedsp.gatech.edu (bill) (09/07/90)
Here's an oddity that I came up against yesterday (9/6). It seems that (at least for Atlanta-based cellular subscribers) it is not possible to call a cellular subscriber collect or make a third party billing to a cellular number. The cellular numbers are blocked at TSPS and will not even allow an operator to call through to the intended "bill-ee" for a yay or nay. This is the case for both the A and B systems here (Pactel Cellular and Bellsouth Mobility). Do any readers have a definitive answer why this so? Surely the cellco and telco know the proper number to bill to and answer-supervision is returned, so these are not reasons to forbid billing to a cellular subscriber. I suspect that the real reason has to do with petty infighting between the various telcos and cellcos. Along this same line, I've found that calls to 900 numbers from cellular are blocked also (can't get a road-fix from the Jose Canseco hotline, darn it! ;-). Why? Bill Berbenich, School of EE, DSP Lab Georgia Tech, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 uucp: ...!{backbones}!gatech!eedsp!bill Internet: bill@eedsp.gatech.edu