"Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com> (08/07/90)
Here's news on the latest offering via 900 service, from the
August 6, 1990 edition of <CommunicationsWEEK>:
Just Dial 1-900-230-POPE
"Delivering messages from the Pope may not have been the most
obvious use for "900" services, that that is exactly what Global
Telecom Ltd. is delivering over the Sprint Communications Co.
network. Global Telecom, London, is using Sprint Gateways' Voice 900
Service Bureau to deliver messages from Pope Johm internationally. A
call costs $2 for the first minute and 95 cents for each additional
minute."
Plus, I presume, Caesar's portion added to these prices, which of
course Sprint will bill and deliver unto Caesar directly for you!
[Moderator's Note: If he wanted to get 800 service, I guess MCI would
be out of the question. After all, 800-666-POPE would be a dead
giveaway! :) PT]SDRY@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (Sergio Gelato) (08/13/90)
From: 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin), Message-ID: <10665@accuvax.nwu.edu> > Here's news on the latest offering via 900 service, from the >August 6, 1990 edition of <CommunicationsWEEK>: > Just Dial 1-900-230-POPE If you prefer to hear him in Spanish, the number is +39 7779 3030. Might be cheaper too, at the current rate for calls to Italy. (Disclaimer: I haven't called myself, but the number is advertised on Vatican Radio.) It isn't clear whether the Italian telephone company donates anything to the Vatican out of gratitude for the increased revenue from Latin America; but there are other such intercontinental "hotlines". '****Sport', a British weekly (full name withheld since they don't pay me to do their advertising), has a very popular (or so they say) "0898" number (actually, they just switched to Mercury, so it's 0839 123123 in case anyone wants to waste 25p). Since they have many readers outside the UK, a few months ago they offered a way of reaching their service from abroad: "just dial +611 411 421, normal inter- national rates apply". (Kindly enough, they added "N.B. From Australia dial 00551 4009". And before you try calling: they haven't been advertising this number for the past two months, so the service may have been discontinued.) My question is: what's in it for them? Does Telecom Australia give them a share of the revenue from the calls they get? Sergio Gelato <gelato@astrosun.tn.cornell.edu>