Schuttenberg@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA (10/14/85)
> Wouldn't it be nice if the phone company made you dial a prefix before > making any toll calls? That's the way it is here in Phoenix for inter-zone toll calls around the metropolitan area - 1+ is mandatory. I'd hate to think how much my phone bill would be if my teens, upon their return from summer camp, were not made aware of which new friends lived a toll call away, especially when some of those calls are measured in hours rather than in minutes. The "you must first dial a 1" recording provides the needed awareness.
Frankston@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (10/17/85)
Isn't the right answer having billing information available online. There should simply be a protocol for my home phone system to ask the CO what the charge for a given call will be (i.e., the rate) and what the actual call costs. One can then restrict a given instrument in a house and limit its total spending or the rate or a combination. Of course there are issues of invasion of privacy but that is already true with listings of toll calls. The technology is here to design a protocol and start propogating the implementation internationally. Silly things like using 1+ to indicate a toll call are pretty meaningless since that doesn't solve problems with measured service or the multitude of other complexities. In fact, there are many many services possible if we simply assume that my home pbx is as smart as the telco CO. In fact, it will soon be much smarter since it can apply all of its limited intelligence to just my phone usage and act on my behalf. There is no fantasy here except maybe believing it possible for telco's to actual be willing to consider a protocoled interface to the premises system. Last I heard, they woudn't even provide DTMF for DID (i.e, Direct Inward Dialing used slow pulses to specify the extension number). Anyone out there want to start a new phone network?