Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!bionet!agate!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: morris@jade.jpl.nasa.gov (Mike Morris) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: What Is Involved In Getting a 900 or 976 Number? Message-ID: Date: 19 Aug 89 07:00:34 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: Mike Morris Lines: 31 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 310, message 4 of 10 A friend of mine is currently providing a dial-up service using regular phone lines and a couple cheap answering machines. I'm curious - what is involved in getting a couple 900- or -976- lines? Mike Morris UUCP: Morris@Jade.JPL.NASA.gov #Include quote.cute.standard | The opinions above probably do not even come cat flames.all > /dev/null | close to those of my employer(s), if any. [Moderator's Note: To get a 976 number from Illinois Bell, for starters you drop off an application for same at their office accompanied by a Cashier's Check for $2000. You must have another phone line in addition to the 976 number. 976 is a prefix in the downtown area only. You must have an office downtown where it can be installed. Recordings are limited to 57 seconds. You set the rate to be charged; telco gets half of it. There is a minimum number of calls per day required -- at least a thousand -- and you agree to pay Bell for any shortfall under that number. For example, you charge 50 cents per call. Bell gets 25 cents. If you miss the minimum number of calls required by 100, then you owe Bell (100 x .25 = $25.00). No adult subject matter and no interactive conversation is permitted on 976 in Chicago. Illinois Bell does not operate 900 service here; it is all outside vendors, and mostly monopolized by the Nine Hundred Service Corporation. After your application for a 976 number is approved, allow about six weeks for connection. And one more thing: you agree to accept chargebacks -- as approved by Bell -- for any uncollectibles. Uncollectibles are people who move without paying their phone bill; establish connection via fraudulent schemes so that an innocent third party is billed and then protests; and 'one time goodwill writeoffs' for people whose bratty children ran the phone bill up without the parent's knowledge. What a deal! Of course you do get the benefit of easy collection from your listeners who get charged on their phone bill, and most of the time they pay. PT]