clark@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Roger Clark Swann) (07/11/88)
The following article was reprinted without permission from the Seattle Times, Sunday, June 26, 1988. ******************************************* Get Number On New Operators by Shelby Gilje, Times staff columnist You know your ABCs, right? And you are good at acronyms, too. I'll bet you pride yourself on being a winner a Trival Pursuit. OK. What does "AOS" stand for? Quick! Or you will lose your chance to "win" this game. Oops. Sorry, your time is up. You lose. But just so you'll know next time you're playing Trival Pursuit, or you personally encounter "AOS," it means alternate-opertor service, and it could hit you right in the wallet. Since the federally-ordered breakup of the Bell System companies, it seems as if dozens of new players have entered some part of the phone business. Alternate-operator service is a new aspect in telecommunications. What is it? Let's say you are out of town and pick up the phone in a hotel room to call home. You dail without speaking to an operator. You assume you'll be dealing with AT&T, the long-distance carrier more commonly known as Ma Bell. But you could be dealing with an AOS company. Or, let's say you are in your home town, you have a flat tire and go to a nearby restaurant to use a pay phone. You're in an unfamiliar neighborhood, but it shouldn't cost you any more than a quarter to phone home. Right? Not necessarily. You plunk in a quater. Then an opertor comes on the line and informs you that the call will cost several dollars, not 25 cents. So don't make any assumptions. Before you place a call, ask the operator what company he/she repesents and what the call will cost. AOS companies are in business in other states, too. So if your're vacationing elsewhere this summer, you'll want to ask the same questions. State agencies in Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Ohio are considering regulations for AOS companies. Phones used by alternate-operator services may not look any different than other telephones. That's one reason the Washington state Legislature passed a law this year requiring alternate-operator services to disclose their names and rates to consumers. AOS companies contract with a hotel, motel, hospital, prison, campus - businesses that own pay phones - or other entities to provide operator services. In response to the new legislation, the Utilities and Transportation Commission has dratfed amendments to the Washington Administrative Code. Under these amendments the commission would require all tele- communications firms, including AOS companies, to provide information to the public upon request. Additionally, the commission would require an AOS company to: * Be registered and comply with all Washington state laws before a local company could act as a billing agent. (Not all AOS companies operating here are registered.) * Identify itself at the beginning of a call. * Not bill customers for incomplete calls. * As part of its contract with a hotel, motel, hospital, etc., post "in plain view" the name of its company and a sample of rates and charges for local and long-distance billing. * Give dialing directions to reach an operator for rate information. * Give dialing directions to reach other carriers providing service to the hotel, motel, etc. * Respond to cusomer complaints and disputes. * Not charge for emergency calls. Additionally, AOS companies would have to arrange automatic identification of the location from which an emergency call is being made. And the AOS company would have the correct police, fire, ambulance, poison control and other emergency numbers available for that area. If the AOS phone does not have these provions for emergencies, callers should be able to dial "zero" and be routed directly to a local operator who can put them through to the appropriate agency. The commission staff believes the proposed rules are the minimum requirements necessary to meet the new law. The utilities commission is asking for public comment on the amendments. To comment, write the Washingtion State Utilities and Transportation Commission, 1300 S. Evergreen Park Dr. S.W., Olympia 98504-8002. The commission also has invited AOS companies to comment on the proposed rules, though the commission does not believe the disclosures required will create a financial burden for these telecommunications companies. ********************** end of article Roger Swann uucp: uw-beaver!ssc-vax!clark
marks@Sun.COM (Mark Stein) (08/02/88)
First of all, an apology if this message duplicates others recently on TELECOM. The USENET gateway was out of commission for awhile and hence I missed a bit of discussion. The message about COCOTS and AOS caught my eye. I had an experience I would like to relate, followed by a few questions for anyone who might know the answers. While on business in Dallas last year, I made a phone call from my hotel room to my home number, using the card-call procedure listed on the phone (something like dial 8, followed by areacode and number). I dialed, got the familiar "fading tone" that I am used to hearing, so I entered my 4 digit PIN (omitting the first ten digits since I was calling the home number). I was surprised to hear a live operator come on the line after a short delay and ask me what my calling card number was. I repeated the 4 digit PIN, and she keyed something in and my call went through. I thought this was very strange, but didn't really think about it again until my Pacific Bell phone bill arrived the next month. The call in question would have cost about $3.50 via AT&T, but I was billed something like $14.00 for it from some outfit I had never heard of before "as a service of PacBell." OK, now I knew why the operator had asked me for the calling card number. The alternative service probably couldn't automatically handle the shorthand number, and the operator had simply reentered it preceeded by the displayed called number. I called the BacBell business office to contest the charge, and after a brief discussion of the facts with a very pleasant woman (who sounded like she had heard this complaint before), she credited me with the difference between the billed amount and the "AT&T amount." She said something about returning the charge to the alternative service as uncollectable. So it worked out ok for me (that time), but I am left with some nagging questions. Is there any implied contract between myself and any alternative provider, based on my agreement with PacBell? Do the tariffs covering calling cards really allow the number to be so widely available/ accepted? Is this part of the "subscriber database" made available to certified LD services which was mentioned in a previous message? If so, are there any alternatives available to me, as a consumer, to tell PacBell that I only want my card honored by a specified list of providers? Or is the only solution to be aware of where you are making a call from and make sure that you are talking to an operator of the "right" company? Unfortunately, from what I have seen, it is this "consumer beware" attitude which seems to be required when dealing with both COCOTS and AOS. I applaud the proposal in the state of Washington to help bring this problem under control. Are there similar efforts underway in other states? Who can I write to in California to register my opinion? Thanks for any and all information in advance... Mark Stein <marks@sun.com> Sun Microsystems, Inc.