NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/comp/org/eff/talk/5784

Internet Message Format | 1992-09-10 | 4.1 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!sdd.hp.com!usc!rpi!bu.edu!dartvax!Joe.Francis
From: [e-mail] (Joe Francis)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Socially-Responsible Long Distance (was: AT&T Long
 Distance Boycott)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 11 Sep 92 03:06:58 GMT
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Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
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In article <[e-mail]>
[e-mail] (David Barker-Plummer) writes:

> Sprint switched my residential service from AT&T without my
> permission.  When called on this, they could produce no documentation,
> no reason they might have believed that we wanted to be switched,
> nothing.  They fought the suggestion that they might pay to switch us
> back; to restore our long distance service to the way it was before
> they intervened without our permission.  Further, they billed us
> repeatedly for calls made under their service, before we found out
> that we had been switched.

I may have some information that will be useful to you, or others, on
this matter.  (I may also simply have lots of wrong information :-)

There is a buzz-phrase in the TelCo industry, I believe it is "Equal
Access".  Equal Access is simply the legal requirement placed on local
telcos that they make a level playing field for the long distance
carriers.  Some local telcos were giving all new subscribers the same
default long distance service, typically AT&T.  In other words, if you
moved to a new house and got a new phone number *and didn't ask for a
particular long distance carrier*, you would always get AT&T.  Now the
local telcos may no longer do that - if you don't request a specific
carrier they will randomly assign you one based on the representation
of the carriers among people who *do* explicitly choose them.  If 60%
of those folks choose AT&T, 25% MCI, and 15% Sprint, then you will have
those odds of getting any one of those carriers if you don't ask for a
particular one.

At this point you're probably wondering what this has to do with what
happened to you, since you already had long distance service
established.  The answer to that could be as follows.  In addition to
leveling the playing field among new customers, the telcos must level
the field among existing customers.  The way they do this is by sending
letters to subscribers asking them to specify their long distance
carrier of choice, and these letters inform the customer that if they
do not make a selection, one will be made for them (and you can guess
how that is done... as it is described above for new users).  I've
heard telco people refer to this latter deal as having "Equal Access go
through" an area, as in "Equal Access went through Somerville a few
years ago".

So (*whew*), if you think it's possible you might have ignored or
misunderstood a letter from your local telco, it's possible that you
EA'd into Sprint.

Having said all that, I'll add that I doubt that's what happened to
you.  I imagine Sprint would know when a certain area was going through
Equal Access and would explain to angry callers from that area why
their service was switched, and I take it they did not offer this
explanation to you.

When I lived in Somerville, MA, I had my long distance yanked out from
under me by MCI.  Equal Access was not going through Somerville at that
time (it had long ago), and New England Tel received the order to
switch me over from MCI.  MCI was receiving lots of complaints for
switching people around that time, and I suspect it was simply dirty
pool on their part that was the cause of my woes.

Let me also add that this information is what I've pieced together from
kind net.people and representatives of New England Tel.  It could all
be completely wrong.