Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: henry@garp.mit.edu (Henry Mensch) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Who Pays For International DA? Message-ID: Date: 11 Sep 89 06:30:57 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US 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 366, message 1 of 8 Not I ... I don't get charged for it as a regular DA call, nor do I pay for it otherwise (as a line-item charge on my monthly bill, mind you). And why does the international DA Operator on our side *insist* on talking? They could (for all practical purposes) just ask you where you want to talk to and connect, but *no* ... they feel the need to verbally "collect" the information so they can then relay it inaccurately to the foreign DA operator... to be fair, international DA from the other side seems to lose the same way ... why won't they let me talk directly to the foreign DA operator? Curious, # Henry Mensch / / E40-379 MIT, Cambridge, MA # / / [Moderator's Note: There is no 'international DA operator' that I am aware of. The AT&T long distance operator simply handles every foreign DA request I've ever made. I agree it seems like a waste of time for the operator to stay on the line, however customers have been known to connive and con less sophisticated foreign operators into completing the call for them, obviously on a no-revenue basis to AT&T. I'd think this could be resolved by the AT&T operator warning the other end "information only, do not connect", as they used to do when connecting customers to little dinky manual exchanges for DA a few years ago. What is especially pathetic is the amount of time required to get DA in some mid-east and far eastern countries. Even Jamaica can be bad, but try calling Malasia for DA: she'll take the info and be gone off the line for five to ten minutes. India is another example of *terrible, terrible* very slow DA. For that matter, it may ring twenty-five times before they even pick up. Maybe AT&T figures Americans would be too confused by it all. I am reminded of the time I visited (pre-Castro) Cuba; I tried to call back to the USA from Havanna, and the Havanna operator was ringing the old Miami Overseas Inbound Operator on the cable. Miami must have been busy because it rang about forty times and finally the Havanna operator said to me, "Sorry sir, but the United States is not answering today!" PT]