Ralph.Hyre@C.CS.CMU.EDU (Ralph W. Hyre Jr.) (10/08/85)
I was wondering if any state PUC's required the LOC's to provide a service which required a "1" before dialing a call which the caller would be charged for. (For example, requiring 1-976-nnnn for those 'dial-a-horoscope' calls). Bell of PA does not even provide this crude form of 'notification' to calls outside the Metropolitan area, which is not what I have experienced in Cincinnati or Boston. I have 'unlimited' local service, but I am charged for calls that are within the Metropolitan area but outside of the subset of 'local' exchanges in the Metropolitan area. Unfortunately, I am not required to dial a 1 before making calls outside of this limited list of exchanges. I usually find out that I've made some of these type of calls when I get my bill. I call the LOC, and they tell me that what I 'really' want is 'Unlimited Metropolitan Area Service', which is ~$44/month, compared with ~13/month for 'Unlimited local service', and ~4/month for straight measured rate service. The really maddening thing is that even if I pay $44/month, there are still a good percentage (say 10%) of toll calls which I can make which don't require a '1' before dialing. (setq flame-mode 1) It looks like I'm going to have to use a computer to keep track of all of toll exchanges - this is unreasonable. The phone company has a computer, why don't they use it! (setq flame-mode 0) - Ralph -------
cmoore@BRL.ARPA (Carl Moore, VLD/VMB) (10/10/85)
(I tried to reply to Ralph Hyre but could not get address acceptable to electronic mail system.) I see "cmu" in your system header, and assume that you are in Pittsburgh or vicinity. So there are some points there which still don't require 1+ on toll calls? (I recall noticing lack of 1+ on pay phone when I stopped at bus station in downtown Pittsburgh 2 years ago.)