johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) (10/04/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0422m06@vector.dallas.tx.us> you write: >[Moderator's Note: Generally, AT&T is very much at the mercy of the >local telco as to when things like ROA get turned on; ... I don't get it. Do the BOCs actually compute the bills for AT&T as well as print, mail, and collect them? It was my impression that the LD companies keep their own billing info based on the ANI info provided at the time of the call, and then either send their own bills or tell the local telco what to print on the appropriate page. Or is AT&T different? Regards, John Levine, johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl [Moderator's Note: AT&T and the Bell telcos were interwoven for so many years, there are still some things about AT&T's relationship with the telcos which don't apply to the other OCC's. I don't know for sure if the telcos actually do the *computations* for AT&T or not; I do know that, for example, although AT&T advertises a five percent daytime discount for fifty cents per month to ROA customers, when I have tried to have it put on my ROA account the message I get from AT&T service reps is I can't have it because "... Illinois Bell is not set up for it right now...." Likewise, AT&T insisted to me that they were not the ones to toll-restrict 415-976 from Chicago customers; ".... Illinois Bell made the decision..."; and when I made an inquiry about MCI's new five bucks an hour plan on Saturdays, their rep was eager to take my order but cautioned that "... Illinois Bell usually takes five working days to process our orders...." The local telcos seem to be the ones to do much of the programming/record keeping. PT]