Telecom-Request%usc-eclc@brl-bmd.UUCP (Telecom-Request@usc-eclc) (12/05/83)
TELECOM Digest Monday, 5 Dec 1983 Volume 3 : Issue 112
Today's Topics:
South Central Bell announces new bill format
Cordless telephone info request
Apologies to John Donne
Hotel telephone call surcharges
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Date: 02-Dec-1983 0050
From: John Covert <decwrl!rhea!castor!covert@Shasta>
Subject: South Central Bell announces new bill format
The following notice appeared in my bill from South Central Bell:
You will notice some changes in this telephone bill. They are being
made because South Central Bell is preparing for its coming separation
from AT&T. After the companies split on January 1, 1984, some of your
long distance service will be provided by AT&T and other companies.
However, South Central Bell will continue to bill you under tariff for
AT&T calls and possibly for calls handled by other carriers. Because
of these changes, we have altered the format of your bill to make it
more like the bill you will get after the companies separate. The
main difference in your bill is that long distance calls are put on
separate pages, depending on the carrier. There have been no changes
in rates.
What is interesting is that the one call on this month's bill is a
calling card call from East Boston (Logan Airport) to Maynard. Though
the carrier is New England Telephone (or at least it will be after Jan
1 -- it might be AT&T now), it is listed with South Central Bell as
the carrier.
Actually, today that's sort of true, since they are sort of one
company.
What will be interesting is to see whether it will correctly show the
carriers for each LATA after 1 Jan.
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Date: Thu, 1 Dec 83 16:32:36 est
From: cbosgd!djb@Berkeley (David J. Bryant)
Subject: Cordless telephone info request
I am looking for information on cordless phones, particularly reviews
of particular models or brand names. I have shopped around (sales
people are generally useless when it comes to hard technical
questions) and have most of the features figured out, although the
two-way paging and security arrangements still are somewhat confusing.
I'd appreciate any clarification on these features/issues
(particularly since security seems to be an important concern).
Also, I have noticed a great resemblence between UNIDEN phones and
AT&T's Nomad line. The cases and feature sets are identical (as far
as I can tell) but there is no indication that one manufacturer is
responsible for both.
David Bryant Bell Labs Columbus, OH (614) 860-4516
(cbosgd!djb@Berkeley.arpa)
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Date: Fri, 2 Dec 83 5:20:14 EST
From: Ron Natalie <ron@brl-bmd>
Subject: Apologies to John Donne
Ask not for whom the bell tolls, and you will pay only the
station-to-station rate.
- 4.2 BSD "fortune" program.
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Date: 2 Dec 1983 1202-PST
Subject: Hotel telephone call surcharges
From: WMartin at Office-3 (Will Martin)
Since the subject was brought up, I thought I'd mention one hotel I
stayed at this year (the Hilton in Rochester, NY), which charged 30
cents "local call" charges for the intra-hotel romm-to-room calls our
party made. When we noticed them on our bills and complained at
check-out, they dropped them without comment. I figured either their
charging system was broken, and registering a "local call" every time
you picked up the receiver (because I think I had one on a day I was
called, but didn't call anyone), or they purposely programmed it that
way to increase revenue. After all, if you were making local calls,
you would not be likely to recall exactly how many you made each day.
30 c here and 30 c there adds up to a tidy sum over a year...
Will Martin
PS Is it a sign of the inflationary times that there is an ASCII "$"
dollar symbol, but no "cents" symbol? Hmmm... WM
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End of TELECOM Digest
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