Head@uunet.uu.net (04/01/89)
Today is the big day. We are celebrating April Fool's Day this year
with one final thumbing of our noses at the public and its use of pay phones
to make long distance calls.
Starting today, persons using pay phones to make long distance calls will
pay up to 250 percent more for the same call than they did on Friday. Instead
of some standardization in the public interest, we have decided the public
can be damned, and each business with a pay phone on its premises will be
allowed to pick and choose from about fifty long distance companies which
have started in the last few years.
The people who will be affected the most, of course, are people without
private phone service; people who cannot afford to have a phone in thier
home for whatever reason; people who live in single room residence hotels
who use the pay phone in the lobby; people who need to make a personal
long distance call during work hours who are honest enough to use the
pay phone in the company lunchroom, etc. They will all be getting burned,
badly, in this latest caper in the continuing saga of why America is so
much better off with AT&T bashed to pieces.
I mean, how could *anyone* question the wise, and wonderful decision to
bust up AT&T? Federal judges don't have axes to grind, do they? A judge
wouldn't let his own personal animosity interfere with making a decision
which has cost us the finest phone network in the world would he?
Of course not.....of course not.
As a result of the latest outgrowth of the judge's wisdom, from now on
anyone who needs an operator to place a long distance call, such as a
person-to-person, collect, or credit card call gets it stuck to him
royally. By the very nature of coin operated phones, all calls are at
least semi-operator assisted, if just in the coin collection process.
David Wagenhauser, staff attorney for the Washington-based public interest
group Telecommunications Reasearch and Action Center said in an interview,
"This is probably the worst nightmare for consumers we have ever seen. The
public will suffer greatly from the abuses perpetrated by many of the
long distance carriers, and their choice of operator services."
Wagenhouser pointed out that other long distance companies often fraudulently
impersonate AT&T; and have their operators claim to be AT&T operators when
they are not. He noted that the regulations allowing this latest travesty
did not carry any requirements for the convenience and protection of the
public.
Starting today, your telephone credit card may or may not be accepted at
public telephones. It will depend upon the decision by the 'default' carrier
assigned to that phone if they wish to accept them or not.
They may choose to accept your phone card without telling you that they
are not affiliated with AT&T, and bill you at outrageous rates.
Starting today, the only way you will be able to absolutely insure getting
the quality service of AT&T at the regulated prices AT&T charges is to
dial an extra five digits on the front of *every* long distance call: 10288.
But as Wagenhauser pointed out, even that does not assure that you will
actually reach AT&T: The default long distance carrier is under no
obligation at all to allow connections to 10288, AT&T's long distance network.
The carrier may choose to simply reject calls via 10288, or worse yet, take
the calls and *claim* to be AT&T while charging a mint for their service.
Or, they may choose to allow you to use AT&T if you pay an extra 'connection
charge' for the call.
One group of people who will be in for a real suprise are the folks who
accept collect calls from children away at school or in the military. The
big April Fool's joke on them will occur the first time they get a long
distance bill from Bozo's Alternate Operator Service with out of sight
charges for that half hour call on Sunday afternoon which used to cost three
or four dollars.
Wagenhauser and Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn) introduced a bill in Congress last
month to force the FCC to regulate long distance carriers who offer
operator services more closely. But this would all be a moot point if you-
know-who had given any unbiased and logical thought to the consequences
of his ruling. At least some of the damage is being undone with the proposed
bill in Congress, and the efforts by David Wagenhauser's group and
{Consumer Action}, A San Fransisco based consumer protection service which
last month also convinced the FCC to raise cain with five operators working
on the west coast.
And I still find it puzzling why so many people, [TELECOM Digest] readers
included, are making such stinks about the pay phone mess, when the same
people were so busy singing hosannahs to the judge back in 1983-84-85. You
wanted divestiture; you got divestiture. You wanted AT&T ripped apart, you
got it ripped apart. Why can't you see that the logical conclusion to your
desires four or five years ago is the deterioration of quality and
the increasingly uneasy-to-use attributes of the public telephone network
in America today? Why are you so suprised at how difficult it has become
at times to make a simple long distance call? Why are you so suprised at
the increased costs in local service?
I am convinced that had the American public known as much about telephones
and telephone service five years as they know today, divestiture would
*never* have been permitted to occur. The American people would have been
so angry, so stirred up, that even a judge in an ivy tower peering down
on the peasants from time to time would have taken notice of the commotions.
And people are angry: The FCC is receiving about 2000 letters a month from
Americans asking what in the hell has happened to the phone service. Even
'dial-a-porn' did not bring as many letters and phone calls into the offices
of the Commission.
But as one or two [TELECOM Digest] readers have pointed out, '....people
can buy cellular phones, and start using those instead...' sure they can.
Can't you just picture the several thousand residents of public housing
in Chicago abandoning the pay phone at the corner cut-rate liquor store
in lieu of their new cellular phones? Can't you just picture Mr. and Mrs.
Jones out shopping and using their luggable to call the babysitter? Sure
you can. Maxwell Smart used the phone in his shoe to call his office, but
for most folks on the run, the pay phone at the airport or train
depot, or the phone at the corner convenience mart is where they stop.
And boy, have *they* got a suprise coming, starting today. I really wonder
if the choice of April Fool's Day to start this latest fraud on the
American public was just a coincidence, or deliberatly chosen as part of
the disaster known as divestiture.
As the late Jim Jordan's wife, Mollie used to say, "tain't funny, McGee!"
Head Bozo,
Patrick Townsonroyc@mtdca.uucp (Roy A. Crabtree) (04/04/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0119m01@vector.UUCP>, Head@uunet.uu.net writes: > Today is the big day. We are celebrating April Fool's Day this year [elided] > And people are angry: The FCC is receiving about 2000 letters a month from > Americans asking what in the hell has happened to the phone service. Even [elided] > for most folks on the run, the pay phone at the airport or train > depot, or the phone at the corner convenience mart is where they stop. > And boy, have *they* got a suprise coming, starting today. I really wonder [elided] > As the late Jim Jordan's wife, Mollie used to say, "tain't funny, McGee!" [elided] > Patrick Townson it's just starting ... because the 3-5 year period we just went through is the lead time needed to flow through a new regulatory policy and begin networ wide implmentation. Wait until the AOSs and the COCOTs and other ilk really get rolling. POTS is dying, folks; and the co$t i$ going up ... As bad as some areas of AT&T practise and service have been (& having lived on the inside for much of my career, I can attest to it), you really do not know what you will miss until it is gone: - IN Mexico they _will_ their telephones; new connects take 7-10 years in some areas. - In France up to 1 in 3 local calls go astray. Competition is fine, but why throw out the baby with the bath water? roy a. crabtree att!mtdca!royc 201-957-6033