dannie@uunet.uu.net (Dannie Gregoire) (06/14/90)
I understand that for each 800 line that exists there is a corresponding local (7 digit) number for it. Is this true? If it is, can the "local" number be used for incomming local calls without charge (Normally you cannot call a "local" 800 number)? Thanx-a-head-a-time. \\-------------------\\ \\ Dannie Gregoire \\ \\ (dannie@coplex) \\ \\-------------------\\ [Moderator's Note: Many (most?) 800 numbers are translated into local 'regular-style' numbers at the place where they terminate. Whether or not you can legally dial them via the translated number depends on how the 800 service is being billed. If the incoming line is to be used exclusively for 800 calls, then the receiver of the call is billed and the person who dialed the non-800 version of the number is also billed. This is against regulations, since a double billing for the call has resulted. If the 800 number is the type sometimes called 'Hotline', where a local number can be dialed direct or calls to an 800 number are also sent to that line, then dialing the local version of the number is allowed. PT]
stanley@uunet.uu.net (John Stanley) (06/15/90)
Recently, from coplex!dannie@uunet.uu.net (Dannie Gregoire): >I understand that for each 800 line that exists there is a >corresponding local (7 digit) number for it. Is this true? If it is, >can the "local" number be used for incomming local calls without >charge (Normally you cannot call a "local" 800 number)? There usually is such a number. How it is used depends on the 800 service provider, it seems. While we had an 800 number from AT&T, it had a secret local number that was supposed to be for test purposes only. I was told by the installer that gave me the number (perhaps not the best source, but A source) that billing was based on traffic through that number and calling it locally would cost just like a normal 800 number call. This was when the incoming line was a dedicated wire just for the 800 number. When we moved our 800 service to MCI, they asked us for the number to have calls come in on. In all other regards, this is a normal line, with its own number, just like any other line NYTel provides us. If we wished, we could have our 800 calls come in on our main, published line, and we could have all our 800 calls hunt up through the sequence just like other calls. Since we want to have some way of identifying who is calling in on the 800 number, we have had those calls come in on a separate number that then hunts to the main number when busy. In short, the MCI 800 service can be thought of as: 800 number call is carried on MCI net to a Syracuse MCI office, MCI office picks up a phone and dials the Syracuse number we told them to dial, and connects the 800 call to that. AT&T needed to have a pair in their office to connect the 800 call to, which NYTel just happened to also assign a number to, and AT&T asked NYTel for the billing info. AT&T may have changed the system in the last two years -- it was that long ago we used them.
john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (06/16/90)
John Stanley <nmri!!stanley@uunet.uu.net> writes: > While we had an 800 number from AT&T, it had a secret local number > that was supposed to be for test purposes only. I was told by the > installer that gave me the number (perhaps not the best source, but A > source) that billing was based on traffic through that number and > calling it locally would cost just like a normal 800 number call. First off, getting the POTS number for a standard 800 service is no problem. Your local telco business office will give it to you as well as AT&T (or whoever your 800 provider is). Calling that number using the local POTS assignment will not, repeat not, bill as an 800 call. The calls are ticketed in a number of different ways, none of them including metering the incoming calls to the POTS. I have a traditional AT&T 800 number. I know the POTS (Pac*Bell gave it to me) number. A call directed to the 800 number is billed at one of four rates, depending on location of the caller and time of day. If the billing was based on simple usage of the POTS, how would the point of origin be determined? John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! [Moderator's Note: Under the now less common billing system where WATS lines were in 'bands', the incoming local number detirmined which 'band' should have the charge, for the purpose of minutes/hours of time accumulated on that 'band'. An hour of time on Band 1, for example, cost less than an hour of time on Band 4. So someone dialing one of the local numbers would cause the associated WATS 'band' to register a few minutes of use, despite the fact that the call did not really get routed in from long distance. Now with virtually everyone using simply the equivilent of the old Band 5 (national coverage) in a 'Hotline' (as AT&T calls the service) kind of configuration, it no longer matters. Twenty years ago, breakdown of WATS calls both in and out by 'band' was very common. PT]