JSOL@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU.UUCP (05/16/87)
I recently cancelled my Cellular Phone service with Cellular One in Boston, and they graciously turned off my service. Then I was involved in an accident, and used my NYNEX Roam port to call the police. It was a 1 minute call and wouldn't have cost me except airtime... I made 2 more calls, via credit card, and they all went through fine. SO, I called NYNEX and asked them if I make a call using a credit card does the airtime also get added, and the answer is no. Airtime is charged to the originating service, which in my case was nobody. Next time I tried to use the roam port it beeped at me. So much for abuse of the network. :-) Seriously, I think it should be possible for an unregistered cellular phone to make calling card calls and the charge should include the airtime cost for the call, thus someone in an emergency can use his/her phone to make emergency calls. This is clearly a situation where one hand refuses to talk to the other. Are Cellular Phone companies regulated? Does the PUC in each state have a say in the charging mechanisms? In this day of deregulation, probably not. By the same token, Hotel's should not charge the room bill for calling card calls either. If I am on a business trip and make a personal call I do NOT want that call to appear on my hotel bill (which I am getting reimbursed for, typically). I expect there to be alot more of this type of charging. It costs $.20 to make a local call in NJ if you use a NJB pay phone, but if you use one of the customer owned pay phones you could pay up to $1.00! What a ripoff. --jsol -------