Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Why DA Costs Should Be Spread Among All Subscribers Message-ID: Date: 29 Aug 89 16:15:27 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Littleton MA USA Lines: 30 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 332, message 3 of 9 In article , stiatl!john@gatech.edu (John DeArmond) writes... >...Yep, everybody that >uses DA is a lazy slob including those that: > >* are blind. >* are in a phone booth without a book. >* are in an office without a book. >* are looking for a new number. >* are trying to find a number correction. > >Yep, let's just call them slobs and nail them for each use of DA. That's >the ticket. Makes about as much sense as did the idea of tearing the phone >company up. I don't usually disagree with John, but I think he misses the point. Some folks abuse Directory Assistance. Badly. Some businesses used to use it (and still might, where it's free) as a means to verify credit cards on the cheap. Is the person listed at that address? Such companies ran hundreds of DA calls a month without making the corresponding phone calls. Since it costs telco about half a dollar a call (the FCC required cost-justification for the interstate $.60 which the telcos charge and LD carriers pass along), the telcos were being ripped off. I do support monthly DA allowances. But when something is totally "free", it has a way of being abused. fred (k1io)