Pat, the Editor

27 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981

Previous Issue (Only one)
Classified Ads
TD Extra News

Add this Digest to your personal   or  

 
 
Message Digest 
Volume 28 : Issue 10 : "text" Format

Messages in this Issue:
  Re: termination fees, Any user reviews of the Magic Jack? 
  Trying to keep pace with technology
  Re: Payphone Surcharge 


====== 27 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet.  All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are
included in the fair use quote.  By using -any name or email address-
included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article
herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the
email.

               ===========================

Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without explicit written consent.  Chain letters,
viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome.

We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime.   Geoffrey Welsh

               ===========================

See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 10 Jan 2009 16:04:29 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Cc: redacted@invalid.telecom-digest.org
Subject: Re: termination fees, Any user reviews of the Magic Jack? 
Message-ID: <20090110160429.18783.qmail@simone.iecc.com>

>My son regularly uses a pay phone to call me from his school, using
>prepaid phone cards. I have yet to find one that doesn't add a
>surcharge - as much as 75 cents in one case - for any pay phone call,

In the US, the payphone provider gets paid something like 50 cents for
every 800 call, so I'm not surprised.

I have a card with no surcharge, but you have to buy it in Canada.  If
you're ever in the frozen north, drop by a Loblaws (also known as
Canadian Superstore and some other things) and get a Presidents Choice
calling card.  It's C$.04 per minute.  Once you have one you can
recharge it from anywhere over the net.

If he has access to a phone that can make local calls, you might look
for a local access phone card, since those are cheaper and don't have
a payphone surcharge.

R's,
John

***** Moderator's Note *****

I invite responses from Canadian readers who are interested in
starting a cottage industry. I'll be your first customer.

My son's school insists that all calls be made on the payphone, and
when I offered to install a private line for his use, they said they
were going to set one up for all the students to use "soon", but
somehow that hasn't happened. I suspect they're too busy counting the
receipts from their pay phone business.

Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 14:57:28 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Trying to keep pace with technology
Message-ID: <p062408a3c58ea761f445@[10.0.1.6]>


Trying to keep pace with technology

By John Hilliard
Fri Jan 09, 2009, 04:22 PM EST

FRAMINGHAM -

Do you think teachers still look for kids passing paper notes 
in class?

How very, very 20th century of you.

Now messages - along with photos and other media - are traded with 
cell phones that can make calls, send text messages, take photos and 
surf the Web.

Eagle-eyed teachers not only have to make sure students pay attention 
and follow the rules, but now they must stay up to date on the latest 
Web and cell phone gear.

How good are some teens at this stuff? The best can type a message on 
a cell phone while the device is hidden under clothing, said 
Framingham High School's principal, Michael Welch.

His school doesn't outright ban the devices, but wants them out of 
sight and out of mind for the school day.

...

< href="http://www.wickedlocal.com/framingham/news/x743978279/Trying-to-keep-pace-with-technology">http://www.wickedlocal.com/framingham/news/x743978279/Trying-to-keep-pace-with-technology


------------------------------

Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:15:00 -0500
From: Randall <rvh40@insightbb.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Payphone Surcharge 
Message-ID: <FA515502-97E3-4EE0-ADD4-E3CC40488AA5@insightbb.com>

> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> My son regularly uses a pay phone to call me from his school, using
> prepaid phone cards. I have yet to find one that doesn't add a
> surcharge - as much as 75 cents in one case - for any pay phone call,
> so keep in mind that most advertised prices assume you're calling from
> a non-public phone.


When ATT was split up and COCOTs were allowed into the mix, someone  
noticed that his payphones were being used by people to make "toll- 
free" calls and he wasn't getting paid for it, though the owner of  
the "toll free" number was.

The FCC imposed a per-call "dial-around compensation" surcharge to be  
added to the cost of those calls; the "toll free" carrier charges it  
to the line owner for every call which originates from a payphone --  
and the carrier traditionally cheats the COCOT owner out of it. Most  
COCOT owners are small businesses with only a few phones, and it's  
just not worth the trouble for them to chase a dollar or two a month  
per phone.

Enter groups like the APCC, which is an umbrella group that  
represents small payphone owners to even the scales a bit.

They've been somewhat successful at recovering dial-around  
compensation for COCOT owners:   http://tinyurl.com/8bvhpk


------------------------------




TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm-
unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in
addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup
'comp.dcom.telecom'.

TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational
service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents
of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in
some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work
and that of the original author.

The Telecom Digest is currently being moderated by Bill Horne while
Pat Townson recovers from a stroke. 

Contact information:    Bill Horne
                        Telecom Digest
                        43 Deerfield Road
                        Sharon MA 02067-2301
                        781-784-7287
                        bill at horne dot net

Subscribe:  telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=subscribe telecom
Unsubscribe: mailto:telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=unsubscribe telecom

This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm-
unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and
published continuously since then.  Our archives are available for
your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list
on the internet in any category!

URL information: http://telecom-digest.org

Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/
  (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives)

RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html
For syndication examples see http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest

Copyright (C) 2008 TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved.
Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA.

              ************************

   ---------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as
yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars
per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above.
Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing
your name to the mailing list. 

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only
and messages should not be considered any official expression by the
organization.

End of The Telecom digest (3 messages)
******************************

Return to Archives**Older Issues