AMillar@cup.portal.com (06/26/90)
Here's what it says in the flyer I received with my phone bill (I left
out the parts mentioning the other issue, the size of the local
calling area):
------------------------
In October 1989, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)
.... agreed to eliminate separate charges for residential Touch-Tone
Service, and indicated it would consider eliminating separate charges
for business Touch-Tone Service as well. (CPUC Decision D.89-10-031)
The CPUC asked Pacific Bell and other interested parties to submit
their plans to implement these decisions including proposals to
recover costs associated with these changes. In April, Pacific Bell
filed the first phase of its plan. We recommended that the changes
take effect within the next year. We will notify you after the CPUC
decides how and when these changes will take place.
[....]
- Touch-Tone Service charges eliminated - Most residential customers
have Touch-Tone Service and pay $1.20 per month for it. The
connection charge is $3. Those charges will be eliminated under the
CPUC order, and all residential customers will receive Touch-Tone
Service automatically.
[....]
Also, we are proposing that business customers receive Touch-Tone
Service as part of their basic service. Our proposal on this is
awaiting a CPUC decision. Business customers pay a one-time
connection charge of $5 and $1.70 per month for Touch-Tone Service
today.
The CPUC will consider our proposal and others during the next few
weeks and might decide to hold evidentiary hearings, in which the
parties present evidence on their plans, July 30 and 31 at 505 Van
Ness Ave., San Francisco, CA 94102,
If you wish to be notified in the event hearings are required, write
to: Public Advisor's Office, CPUC, 505 Van Ness Ave., Rm 5303, San
Francisco, CA 94102.
For information about Pacific Bell's proposal, write to: Pacific Bell,
Technical Filings Manager, 140 New Montgomery St. Rm 911, San
Francisco, CA 94105.
--------------------
So it hasn't happened yet, but it's on the way. Although I am only
guessing, I think it is fair to say that as part of the proposal,
residential customers will face an increase in basic monthly service
of $1.20 and business customers will pay $1.70 more.... ;-)
Alan Millar AMillar@cup.portal.com
P.S. And the basic connection cost for a line will go up by
$3 and $5 for residential and business...."John A. Hammond" <hammond@cod.nosc.mil> (07/07/90)
Several years ago, my daughter informed me that the pulse/dial telephones that I purchased would work in the tone mode. Since that time, particularly since we gave all of the rotary units back to PacBell rather than pay exhorbitant monthly rental, I have been using touch-tone dialing exclusively. There has never been an additional charge for that usage or an installation charge. I have had the same telephone service for roughly 25 years with the only change being the result of the divestiture. I suspect that the switch was replaced with a new one and touch-tone was available for use. I just didn't make the mistake of signing up for it!
smb@ulysses.att.com (07/09/90)
John Hammond writes of Touch-Tone service suddenly working on his line, and speculates about a switch upgrade. More likely, the switch hasn't been upgraded. My understanding is that with crossbar switches, Touch-Tone has to be enabled for groups of 100 lines at a time. Thus, if a ``neighbor'' has the service, you can have it, too. This is in contrast to modern digital exchanges, where all lines physically can have it, but a configuration bit tells the switch whether or not to honor the tones. A year or two ago, NY Telephone announced that they were going to start looking for people who used Touch-Tone without paying for it, and send them a bill. I haven't heard of this actually happening yet.
Dave_JOHNSTON%01%SRJC@odie.santarosa.edu (07/10/90)
A gentleman from AT&T responded to John Hammond's message about mysteriously appearing touch tone service. He made mention of NY Tel threatening to bill people who used TT without paying, but said he hadn't ever heard of it happening. I can't vouch for someone being billed, but several years ago when I lived in Ukiah, CA 707-462, they were contacting people both in writing and verbally who were using touch tone service without paying. They had just converted from a Crossbar office to 1AESS, and were apparently deluged with people who realized that TT worked for free. Shortly thereafter they must have patched it, because it stopped being free. Not that I would ever take advantage of Pac Bell. After all, look at all the wonderful things they've done for me. Dave Johnston johnston@odie.SantaRosa.EDU Santa Rosa Junior College (707) 527-4853 1501 Mendocino Ave. Santa Rosa, CA 95401 I have no opinions.
John Cowan <cowan@marob.masa.com> (07/13/90)
In article <9534@accuvax.nwu.edu> smb@ulysses.att.com writes: >A year or two ago, NY Telephone announced that they were going to >start looking for people who used Touch-Tone without paying for it, >and send them a bill. I haven't heard of this actually happening yet. It happened to me considerably more than a year ago. cowan@marob.masa.com (aka ...!hombre!marob!cowan)