Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!texsun!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: davef@brspyr1.brs.com (Dave Fiske) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: While Phone Rings, Charges May Begin Message-ID: Date: 17 Jul 89 21:08:11 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: BRS Info Technologies, Latham NY Lines: 44 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 243, message 9 of 9 In article , lim@csvax.caltech.edu (Kian-Tat Lim) writes: > [From the LA Times "Consumer Views" column, by Don G. Campbell, 7/7/89. > Paraphrased except for items in quotes.] > > QUESTION: J. T. observes several one-minute call charges on his/her MCI phone > bill. These were made to answering machines that answer on the fifth ring; > he/she always hung up after the third or fourth ring. > > MCI first claims that J. T. would not have been charged if the machine hadn't > answered. An MCI manager later informs the customer that "when [you] call a Yet another twist on the "Did the call go through or not" dilemma: If a party has one of the following devices hooked up, the call is actually completed, but the caller is fooled into thinking that the number is still ringing. "...[T]he autoswitch answers the call on the first ring and listens for the 1100-Hz tone that is transmitted by an autodialing fax machine. If it senses the tone, the TF500 connects the incoming call to the fax machine. If it does not sense the tone, the device rings on through to the local telephone five times. If the phone is not answered the autoswitch automatically switches in the fax..." "Since the autoswitch actually answers the phone on the first ring and then takes a few seconds to decide whether the call is fax or phone, to prevent the caller from holding a 'dead line' while the device makes up its mind, the TF500 generates a phantom ringing signal back to the caller. As far as the caller is concerned, he hears the telephone ringing--he does not know that the call has actually been answered." from a review of the Command Communications TF500 Autoswitch, Radio-Electronics, November, 1988 -- "MAN USES TAPE TO STICK Dave Fiske (davef@brspyr1.BRS.COM) HIS TOE BACK ON!" Home: David_A_Fiske@cup.portal.com Headline from Weekly World News CIS: 75415,163 GEnie: davef [Moderator's Note: It was electrical tape he used, by the way, not scotch tape. In Wednesday's Digest, installers sometimes have a devil of a time finding unused pairs in the cable run, and not just on the 666 exchange either! And jsol expresses concern that when he gets some additional service the telco will skimp on pairs rather than run more. See ya tomorrow! PT]