blake@pro-party.cts.com (Blake Farenthold) (05/23/89)
I just signed up for Starlink, a service that is supposed to compete with PC Pursuit. Starlink uses Tymnet's Async Outdial service and offers off peak (7p-6a) calls to BBSes or other online services for $1.50/hr plus phone charges. (charges from the outdial modem) The plus phone charges are what worry me. If you access one of their outdials and make a toll call you get hit with the toll. By "toll" I'm refering not only to typical 1+ long distance calls but the zone charges some phone companys impose on "local" calls. Starlink doesn't seem to know what calls are free from the outdial port and what calls are not. I would think Tymnet would have to know so they could bill Starlink (who in turn bills the user) or there would be a HUGE billing lag, but for whatever reason Tymnet isn't saying. All the user knows is the NPA-NXX of the outdial port. Is there a way to find out whats a free call and what charges, if any, are associated with a call from a remote area. Starlink has made 3 suggestions all of which I don't like.. 1) Go to the library and look at the phone books of ALL of the outdial citys and determine whats a local call. 2) Call the phone co. or operator in the remote city and ask... I have a great mental picture of trying to convince an operator to tell me what zone charges, if any are associated with calls to every NXX from some place other than where I'm calling from. 3) Ask the remote computers Sys Admin. if his site is a local call from NPA NXX (try this with a 15 year old BBS Sysop) Any suggestions of how/where to get this information in a useable form? This seems to me to be another good argument for the "if the calls gonna cost you HAVE to put a 1 or 0 in front of the number (1-976, 1-512-... 011-44-01...)" if the BOC's and independants would adopt this it would save lotsa people lotsa headaches.. no more "I didn't know that 976 call cost $30" just teach the kids not to dial 1+, like my mom did to me. ______ UUCP: ...!crash!pnet01!pro-party!blake ARPA: crash!pnet01!pro-party!blake@nosc.mil INET: blake@pro-party.cts.com Blake Farenthold | CIS: 70070,521 | Source: TCX023 P.O. Box 17442 | MCI: BFARENTHOLD | GEnie: BLAKE San Antonio, TX 78217 | BBS: 512/829-1027 | Delphi: BLAKE [Moderator's Note: Starlink was discussed in great detail here earlier this year. See Vol. 9 Issues 37, 38, 49, 51 from the last days of January and the first week of February. Also, Vol. 9 Issue 65 of February 17. Starlink does not appear to be any bargain at all. Rather than worry about which calls are local and which are toll, either sign up for PC Pursuit or use Reach Out. Regretably, Starlink is more expensive and less economical than either of these other two options. Telenet only charges $1 per hour with no telco surcharge. Intrastate tolls from Starlink terminating modems are frequently equal to or exceed, minute per minute, the charges for Reach Out America. Read the issues mentioned and decide for yourself. PT]
deej@bellcore.bellcore.com (David Lewis) (06/01/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0175m02@vector.dallas.tx.us>, blake@pro-party.cts.com (Blake Farenthold) writes: > This seems to me to be another good argument for the "if the calls gonna cost > you HAVE to put a 1 or 0 in front of the number (1-976, 1-512-... 011-44-01)" > if the BOC's and independants would adopt this it would save lotsa people > lotsa headaches.. no more "I didn't know that 976 call cost $30" just teach > the kids not to dial 1+, like my mom did to me. The problem is that 1+ is recommended for use to distinguish 7-digit dialed numbers from 10-digit dialed numbers where interchangeable NPA/office codes are introduced (currently only a few locations; will eventually be very widespread because of code exhaustion). Some 10D calls are "local" calls; some 7D calls are toll calls. Example: You live in Queens (NPA code 718) and are calling someone in Manhattan, 212-NNX-XXXX. It's a "local" call, though. If 1+ means a toll call, the switch has to have some other way of recognizing that 212NNXX is not a home NPA dialed number -- it has to wait and expect more digits after the first 7. So when you call someone in Queens, say at 218NNXX, the switch has to wait four seconds or so in case you're really dialing someone at 218-NXX-XXXX (your buddy in Minnesota). If 1+ means a 10-digit dialed number, the switch can interpret the first digit; if it's a 1, it leaves the tone generator on line until it gets 10D; if it's anything else, it takes the tone generator off line and gets on with call processing after getting 7D. -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= David G Lewis "If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower." Bellcore 201-758-4099 Navesink Research and Engineering Center ...!bellcore!nvuxr!deej