roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) (08/30/90)
I tried to place a long distance call the other day from a
bedside phone in a hospital room the other day. I was in 212 and was
trying to call 512 (both served by NYTel, so I'm not sure if "long
distance" is the appropriate term"). I wanted to put it on my AT&T
calling card, so I tried 9-10288-0-516-xxx-xxxx. This got me 2 rings,
then a recording advising me that it was not "necessary" to dial an
long-distance access code for this call. What did that mean? Did it
mean that NYTel would handle it as a local call themselves, or was it
an attempt to "encourage" me to use whatever the default carrier was?
Just dialing 9-1-516-xxx-xxxx got me a "boinggg" but not a "Boinggg
twinkly-noise/AT&T", so I have idea who the carrier was.
So, I dialed 9-0 and told the operator that I wanted to place
an AT&T calling card call. One or two rings later, another operator
gets on the line and the first operator says something like "I have a
customer requesting AT&T long distance", and then gets off the
circuit. The AT&T operator takes the number I'm calling and my
calling card number, and connects me. Why the little inter-operator
conversation? Did it really mean, "Operator, this here caller tried
his best to dial the call direct but our phone system wouldn't let
him, so he shouldn't be charged operator assisted rates"? And who was
the first operator? Some AOS?
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!royschwartz@aiag.enet.dec.com (08/31/90)
>I tried to place a long distance call the other day from a >bedside phone in a hospital room the other day. I was in 212 and was >trying to call 512 (both served by NYTel ... 212 (New York City; also 718) and 516 (Long Island) are in the same LATA (as well as part of 914 and a smidgen of 203). Your call was, in fact, local, and was probably cheaper using NYTel than any LD carrier. >the first operator says something like "I have a customer requesting >AT&T long distance", and then gets off the circuit. The AT&T operator >takes the number I'm calling and my calling card number, and connects >me. Why the little inter-operator conversation? Sounds like the NYTel operator was telling the AT&T operator, "This customer insists on using a LD carrier for a local call." Steve