tanner@ki4pv.uucp (Dr. T. Andrews) (03/23/89)
A year or three ago, the local phone co. switched from stepper relays to electronic switching. At the same time, they "cleverly" chhecked phone lines for equipment which could tone dial, and quietly added the $1/mo charge on such lines. One item so detected was a plain old telephone set (with pulse dial) at home. After I made the proper noises, the charges were removed. It might be interesting to know how these "tests" are done: do they just add the charge and hope no one notices? The "test" is that if you yell, then you don't get charged? This, of course, is not the interesting issue. The real issue here is that we have 4 modems which could tone dial if I wished. They can also pulse dial, and for $1/month (each) that is exactly what they do. How much is the phone co. having to invest in equipment to deal with pulses, and how much more does it cost them to have my modems tying up whatever device interprets phone numbers? Are they saving money because I have the modems pulse dial, or would they be better off paying me $1/month (each) to tone dial?