Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-winken!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: julian@bongo.uucp (julian macassey) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: UK->USA, Which Carrier? Message-ID: Date: 14 Sep 89 03:04:56 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: The Hole in the Wall Hollywood CA U.S.A. Lines: 35 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 373, message 5 of 11 In article , pcf@galadriel. british-telecom.co.uk (Pete French) writes: > In Message-ID: ..... > >[Moderator's Note: Do you know whether or not the British Telecom subscriber > >gets any choice in the matter? That is, can they indicate by any routing > >code, or by going through an operator that they wish the call to be routed > >over AT&T or over MCI? If a subscriber makes a collect call to the USA for > >example, does whoever pays for the call get to select the international > >carrier? Or are they stuck with whoever BT routes them on? PT] > I am fairly sure that our subbys are stuck with whatever BTI decides to give > them. I had never heard of MCI or Sprint until I started reading this group > and even now I am not quite sure who they are - as far as I can make out > they own the long bits of wire in the States rather than the short bits :-) > A few years ago when Sprint and MCI first offered overseas calls, I called their PR dweebs for info. I remember I called the Sprint dweeb in San Francisco. I asked if the traffic to the UK was one way or two way. Two way I was told. Do UK subscribers get a break on call pricing if British Telecom sends a UK to US call via Sprint? No, I was told. UK subscribers don't get to choose their carrier and they get to pay what BT tells them to pay. BT we can assume picks up the profit and uses for glossy annual report brochures. For the BT readers, Sprint and MCI are long distance providers. Here in the US you can choose who will route your call. Your choice is based on price and service. You can choose a "default" carrier and then select any other carrier you want on a per call basis. Sorta like Mercury except it works all over the the country and you don't need a long account number anymore. Yours Julian Macassey, n6are julian@bongo ucla-an!denwa!bongo!julian n6are@k6iyk (Packet Radio) n6are.ampr.org [44.16.0.81] voice (213) 653-4495