SPGDCM@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU.UUCP (05/11/87)
MSG:FROM: SPGDCM --UCBCMSA TO: NETWORK --NETWORK 05/11/87 11:33:02
To: NETWORK --NETWORK Network Address
From: Doug Mosher <SPGDCM at UCBCMSA>
Title: MVS/Tandem Systems Manager (415)642-5823
Office: Evans 257, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
Subject: access fees, ld pricing comparisons
To: telecom@xx.lcs.mit.edu
Access Fees:
Local subscribers are being charged "access fees", identified as fees to cover
the cost of accessing long-distance services. This confuses the #$%&* out of
me. Everything I hear tells me l.d. is cheap and in the past subsidized local
service; now it isn't doing that so local services' prices must increase.
Fine, so call the price rises "decline- of-subsidy fees" or "cost-recovery
fees". Why "access fees"? If they really were that, they should be charged to
all long-distance co's incl ATT, thereby charging the long-distance users for
the privilege of using long-distance, not charging all users including
exclusively local users for the privilege.
In this time of much exchange of fairly frank information and publicity, and
widespread knowlege of what is happening, what perversity led to this
conspiracy to use obfuscating terms all over the country for this price
increase in local services?
For that matter, who GETS these "access fees"?
LD Pricing Comparisons
In the discussions so far, I haven't seen my favorite cost saving mentioned. I
use SPRINT and appreciate the fact that my long-distance costs are the SAME
for most calls I make when travelling, to the costs when I make them from my
home phone. That is, my accounting does not charge any surcharge for not being
at home, over what local SPRINT users are charged for the same calls.
Two modulating factors:
1. I cannot always determine the local access no., and if I use the national
800 number I DO pay extra.
2. There is a national no. I can call for free to, among other things, ask
what the local access no's are. However it is often busy a lot. (worse than
that: it's a tone-tree: "are you a residential or business user, dial 1 or 2,
are you calling about billing or service, dial 1 or 2.... after I do all this,
I get a busy signal! Fewer trunks for the residential, service needer, of
course...)
3. I am told that original SPRINT customers have been grandfathered-in with
this particular rate saving. SPRINT merged with another LD co. some time ago,
which didn't have this feature, and apparently newer customers don't get the
same savings, paying something extra for away-from-home calls.
0-0 Sprint service
For awhile here (San Francisco) the ATT user had operator service (by dialing
0-0) but my sprint service required my calling sprint customer service as a
regular call. Used to be a special 6-digit no. after I dialed the sprint
access no., then when I got direct dial sprint, I didn't know how to reach
them; then for awhile I could dial either their local access no. or 10277 from
my home phone, then use the special 6-digit no. (what an odd procedure, since
my home phone was already routed to them for longdist svc.)
Recently I discovered that I can now dial 0-0 to get a sprint operator. I'm
not sure what they DO; I actually asked "what is that number a phone user can
dial to see what service they are connected to? And this operator didn't
know... but then again, since she was a sprint op, I had my answer.
Thanks, Doug
access fees, ld pricing comparisons