paul@uunet.uu.net (Paul S. Sawyer) (08/16/90)
In article <10872@accuvax.nwu.edu> levin@bbn.com (Joel B. Levin) writes: >The charges do indeed seem to be determined by the "exchange" digits, >both from what is said on that recording, and from some of the rate >schedule information that has been presented here in past months for >900 services from various companies. At one time this seemed to be so, maybe when it was all AT&T, but now any 900 number seems to be able to be priced as the end user wants, within (very few) limits imposed by laws, tariffs, and/or carrier policies. We need to price these calls for cost allocation to departments, and for customer (student) billing. At first, the software assumed .50 for the first minute, .35 for each additional minute (weren't those the good old days?). When 5.00 per call, 2.00 per min., etc. calls started appearing, we noticed that pricing was consistant by exchange, and could bill fairly accurately that way. Soon, we noticed that consistency by exchange was no longer.... Does anyone know of a source of 900 pricing that could be used to price these calls in a timely manner? We now wait for billing tapes, which themselves have up to two-month old calls, putting us up to three months behind on billing for these calls. (No, we don't wish to block these or any types of calls....) Paul S. Sawyer uunet!unh!unhtel!paul paul@unhtel.UUCP UNH Telecommunications attmail!psawyer p_sawyer@UNHH.BITNET Durham, NH 03824-3523 VOX: +1 603 862 3262 FAX: +1 603 862 2030
myerston@cts.sri.com (08/23/90)
Re: The issue of pricing 900-calls from a PBX. This is major emerging
problem. The problem has been highlighted by the increasing number of
"legit" 900 services. For example, many software vendors are now
providing technical support via 900 services. It simplifies their
operation, encourages brevity and perhaps brings in a few bucks :-) If
your company buys from these vendors then it makes little sense to
block 900 calls. AT&Ts 900 service (Multiquest) prices on NXX-X
((900) NXX-X---).
For example (900) 820-2--- is $3/1st min while (900) 820-5--- is
>$50</1st min. The list is available from AT&T. Further
complicators: Non-AT&T 900 services and the recently announced ability
of individual users to change their AT&T rates at will ... Not an easy
problem since not many PBXs parse routing to 7 digits. Our solution:
Make staff use Credit Cards for 900 calls. Route Credit Card Calls
(O+) over dedicated toll-connecting trunks.Linc Madison <rmadison@euler.berkeley.edu> (08/23/90)
In article <11033@accuvax.nwu.edu> Paul Sawyer writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 580, Message 11 of 13 >levin@bbn.com (Joel B. Levin) writes: >>The charges do indeed seem to be determined by the "exchange" digits, >At one time this seemed to be so, maybe when it was all AT&T, but now >any 900 number seems to be able to be priced as the end user wants, >within (very few) limits imposed by laws, tariffs, and/or carrier >policies. >[First .50/.35, then some exchanges 5.00/0.00 or 2.00/2.00, etc., and > finally no consistency at all within an exchange.] I happened to notice that the exchange 900-535 has a wide variety of charges for calls. There are some adult services advertized in local freebie papers and 4:30 a.m. tv shows on this prefix, and also some of the "call this number and get a guaranteed $1000 credit card" types, with charges of at least $8 or $9 and maybe more on some of them. I saw one that I *think* was on this prefix that had a charge of something on the order of $35. Linc Madison = linc@tongue1.berkeley.edu