res@cbnews.att.com (Robert E. Stampfli) (06/30/89)
Recently, the following subject came up in the office and no one knew the answer: If you want to make a long distance call from a coin phone the old fashioned way -- ie: pay for it as-you-go by inserting vast quantities of coins into the phone as directed by the operator -- how is this accomplished? Is it possible to use other than the default long distance carrier in this case? Just curious. Rob Stampfli att!cbnews!res (work) osu-cis!n8emr!kd8wk!res (home)
johnl@harvard.harvard.edu (John R. Levine) (07/04/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0220m03@vector.dallas.tx.us> res@cbnews.att.com (Robert E. Stampfli) writes: >If you want to make a long distance call from a coin phone the >old fashioned way -- ie: pay for it as-you-go by inserting vast quantities >of coins into the phone as directed by the operator -- how is this >accomplished? Is it possible to use other than the default long distance >carrier in this case? ... I don't know much about the details of call completion other than that calls from regular payphones are routed to equipment at the long distance company that looks up the price and listens for the sounds the phone makes when you put in the money, and sends a signal back to the phone when the call is answered to tell the phone whether to drop the money into the coin box or the coin return. COCOTs do it all themselves with internal microprocessors. Until recently AT&T was the only LD carrier that had arrangements with the local telcos to handle coin calls. With the recent extension of equal access to pay phones, MCI and Sprint are now phasing in coin service. I can dial, 10222-1-number or 10333-1-number from a payphone here in Cambridge and I get a computer that sounds exactly like AT&T's asking for exactly the same amount of money that AT&T asks for. The volume and background noise are different, though. I don't know whether MCI and Sprint are subcontracting their coin service to AT&T (as they do their directory assistance) or if it's just that everybody buys their coin call processing equipment at the same place. I also note that if I dial 10222-0-number or 10333-0-number, I get MCI or Sprint recordings asking me to dial my calling card number, but the only card number that works is my New England Tel number (which is the same as my AT&T number), not my MCI or Sprint number. I don't understand that at all. -- John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 { bbn | spdcc | decvax | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old. -The Globe