Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: pdg@chinet.chi.il.us (Paul Guthrie) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: How Exactly Do Private Pay Phones Work? Message-ID: Date: 3 Jul 89 00:05:02 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: Paul Guthrie Organization: The League of Crafty Hackers Lines: 41 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 221, message 6 of 7 In article smk@attunix.att.com (S M Krieger) writes: >Now, I'd like a little education on exactly how these private >phones work; for example, > 1. If I am going to deposit coins to pay for the call, > what is computing how much I pay? With COCOT type phones (Intellicalls, Alcatels, etc) the phone itself computes the rates. The methods they use are not as complex or accurate as most LD carriers. They mainly have NPA+NXXs stored in a table mapping to rate centres. They then store latas and V&H coordinates of the rate centres and compute distance to look up in mileage band tables for combos of inter/intra state/lata calls. Tax is often added at a highest possible rate. In short, they take shortcuts, and generally compute a higher than normal rate to cut down on the amount of memory needed for the ROM based tables. These tables are often out-of-date. Some of the newer phones have modems in them to receive downloaded rates from a PC program. > 2. Will these phones connect me free of charge to a > local telco operator, or could even a single '0' > connect me to some pre-selected LD operator? They can be programmed either way. The amount of options for dialing plans on these things is huge. > 3. If I make a call from these phones without ever deposting > any coins, does the phone owner get any revenue from > the call No. It's part of the price of doing business. > 4. Am I entitled to 10xxx LD carrier selection if I use > one of these phones? Not really. I've even seen them programmed to take the 10xxx and still send the call through the AOS (transparently). Of course, none of these comments apply to BOC phones necessarily. -- Paul Guthrie chinet!nsacray!paul