Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: ima!johnl@harvard.harvard.edu (John R. Levine) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Calling cards Message-ID: Date: 16 Jul 89 19:37:35 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 29 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 241, message 2 of 9 In article John Cowan writes: >>[Moderator's Note: ... I got *my* calling card from Illinois Bell, >>and although the number is identical (including the PIN) to the one I also >>got from AT&T, > >Naturally. A BOC calling card >is< an AT&T calling card. ... You might think so, but it's not so. The calling card numbers are made up by the operating companies and then picked up by AT&T. Although the card numbers are the same, the BOC cards and the AT&T cards are separate. Your AT&T card is good for AT&T calls, your BOC card good for intra-LATA calls. All of the BOCs have billing arrangements with each other, so you can use your BOC card for intra-LATA calls anywhere. Other LD companies could perfectly well use the same numbers, but for reasons that now seem largely historical, they all make up their own calling card numbers which have the same format as the BOC numbers but different PINs. An insert in my Sprint bill a few months ago mentioned that they're starting to make agreements with the BOCs to take each other's calling card numbers. Furthermore, I have found that if I go to a payphone and dial 10333-0-number, Sprint will take my BOC card number but not by Sprint FON number. Curiouser and curiouser. -- John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 { bbn | spdcc | decvax | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old. -The Globe