rfarris@serene.UUCP (Rick Farris) (12/03/89)
Pac*Tel offers a "rotary ring-down" service, wherein, for incoming calls, if one of a group of numbers is busy, the next number in sequence will automatically be selected. The charge for this service is a one-time fee of $40 per number affected, and then $0.50 per month per line. It seems to me that this service would have to be provided at the CO; I don't see how it could be provided at the customer site. Am I correct in this? At some point, of course, it seems that you could bring in a wide-band trunk, and then do the rotarizing at your end. At $40/line, how many lines would you need to make this cost effective? I realize I don't know what I'm talking about; that's why I've come here, for info -- hopefully not flames. :-) Rick Farris RF Engineering POB M Del Mar, CA 92014 voice (619) 259-6793 rfarris@serene.uu.net ...!uunet!serene!rfarris serene.UUCP 259-7757 [Moderator's Note: That seems to be an awful rip-off price to me! Illinois Bell has always offered hunt and jump-hunt (out of sequence but reaonably close together lines) for *free*. You could always get it wired so your first line hunted the second, then the third.....ninth, fifteenth, etc... Does Pac*Bell understand what you are asking for? In some exchanges, the numbers had to be in sequence, ascending, but in others, any reasonable ascending order was okay, but there was never any charge for it. Circular hunt in an ESS office has a small charge. PT]
John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com> (12/04/89)
In article <1765@accuvax.nwu.edu>, rfarris@serene.UUCP (Rick Farris) writes: > Pac*Tel offers a "rotary ring-down" service, wherein, for incoming > calls, if one of a group of numbers is busy, the next number in > sequence will automatically be selected. > [Moderator's Note: That seems to be an awful rip-off price to me! > Illinois Bell has always offered hunt and jump-hunt (out of sequence > but reaonably close together lines) for *free*. I've never heard it called "rotary ring-down", but hunting costs an arm and a leg with Pac*Bell (like everything else). It costs $20.00 per line to make any change in hunting e.g. install, remove, number change, etc. For instance, if I have two lines (as I do for my UUCP modems) and I want the lead number to "hunt" to the second number, then I pay $40.00 extra ($20.00 per line) to install over and above any other charges and $1.00 per month ($0.50 per line). It would cost $40.00 to have the hunting removed as well (@ $20.00 per line). I did, however, circumvent that. With busy-forwarding, you pay $5.00 to put it in (on the first line, which when busy "forwards" to the second) and $2.00 per month. An advantage is that the two numbers have different prefixes and they won't install normal hunting to do that, even if served by the same switch. It will take 35 months before the extra dollar a month catches up with me, and there is no termination charge if and when it is removed. > In some exchanges, the numbers had to be in sequence, ascending, but > in others, any reasonable ascending order was okay, but there was never > any charge for it. Circular hunt in an ESS office has a small charge. PT] Since much of Pac*Bell is electromechanical, jump options are generally not available. In crossbar, it takes an auxiliary relay panel to allow subscriber lines to jump from one "level" to another. These panels are generally out of stock, so the customer is generally out of luck. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
Lars J Poulsen <lars@salt.acc.com> (12/05/89)
In article <1782@accuvax.nwu.edu> john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > ... hunting costs an >arm and a leg with Pac*Bell (like everything else). It costs $20.00 >per line to make any change in hunting e.g. install, remove, number >change, etc. For instance, if I have two lines (as I do for my UUCP >modems) and I want the lead number to "hunt" to the second number, >then I pay $40.00 extra ($20.00 per line) to install over and above >any other charges and $1.00 per month ($0.50 per line). It would cost >$40.00 to have the hunting removed as well (@ $20.00 per line). > ... With busy-forwarding, you pay $5.00 >to put it in (on the first line, which when busy "forwards" to the >second) and $2.00 per month. ... and there is no termination >charge if and when it is removed. I am amazed that people put up with such rip-offs, and THEN talk about how bad GTE is. In my GTE area, the technical quality has been excellent since they ripped out the entire CO plant and replace it with ESS about 3 years ago. Since then they have replaced the cable plant in most of the city (they were running out of pairs). And hunting is free. I have my two lines in a circular hunt group, though I'll probably change that some day. (When the voice line is busy, I don't usually want to deal with another voice call untill I get off the first one). Technically, what is the difference between hunting and busy- forwarding ? Sounds to me like the same thing in an ESS environment. / Lars Poulsen <lars@salt.acc.com> (800) 222-7308 or (805) 963-9431 ext 358 ACC Customer Service Affiliation stated for identification only My employer probably would not agree if he knew what I said !!
john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (12/07/89)
In article <1810@accuvax.nwu.edu>, lars@salt.acc.com (Lars J Poulsen) writes: > I am amazed that people put up with such rip-offs, and THEN talk about > how bad GTE is. Yes, but what do you pay monthly for a phone? I'll bet it's higher than my rate. Of course, I probably actually pay more because I have Commstar (home Centrex) which you can't get on unmeasured lines. Neah! > Technically, what is the difference between hunting and busy- > forwarding ? Sounds to me like the same thing in an ESS environment. At first blush, it would appear that the two are simply tariff differentiations. But busy-forwarding also allows you to cross prefix boundaries, and will forward after a preset number of unanswered rings. In my case, I have that number set to something like 15 or so. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !