home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!news.acns.nwu.edu!telecom-request
- Date: Sat, 02 Jan 1993 00:42:31 EST
- From: JOHN SCHMIDT <schmidt@auvax1.adelphi.edu>
- Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
- Subject: Another Payphone Mystery?
- Message-ID: <telecom13.1.5@eecs.nwu.edu>
- Organization: TELECOM Digest
- Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
- X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 1, Message 5 of 13
- Lines: 34
-
- I recently visited my Alma Mater, WPI in Worcester, Mass. (A/C 508).
- When I got there, I wanted to call my mother in Ahmerst Mass.
- (413-253****).
-
- There was a payphone, clearly identified as a New England Telephone
- phone, near where I parked. The long distance carrier was clearly
- marked as AT&T. I dropped a quarter in and dialed the number (1+) The
- response was a beep something like a touchtone followed by "Deposit
- two dollars please." Thinking this a bit steep, and not hearing the
- AT&T "boing", I hung up and dialed 1-0-288-413-etc. Same result.
-
- Being thoroughly annoyed at this point, I went into a nearby dorm,
- where I found another identically marked payphone, with a NET credit
- card phone next to it. I tried the payphone first, same result both
- ways. I then used my AT&T Master Card in the credit card phone, got
- the familiar "boing", etc, and placed my call. (The bill on my card,
- which arrived last week, was 85 cents.)
-
- What gives with the payphones? Shouldn't I have gotten AT&T? (I'm
- pretty sure that Worcester and Amherst are in different LATA's. In
- any event, isn't $2.00 a pretty steep rate for a direct dial pay call
- of about 35 miles? I thought charged calls were generally more
- expensive than cash payphone calls, but then I rarely make long
- distance(?) payphone calls these days.
-
- Any answers welcome.
-
-
- John H. Schmidt, P.E. |Internet: schmidt@auvax1.adelphi.edu
- Technical Director, WBAU |Phone--Days (212)456-4218
- Adelphi University | Evenings (516)877-6400
- Garden City, New York 11530 |Fax-------------(212)456-2424
-
-