Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!sun-barr!texsun!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert 13-Sep-1989 1145) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: RE: UK->USA, Which Carrier? Message-ID: Date: 13 Sep 89 15:56:20 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 36 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 378, message 2 of 9 >Anyway - what difference does it make who handles the call ? Surely the end >result is the same...the charges are, and I dont really care who owns the >bits of wire. The end result isn't necessarily the same. Different carriers do provide a different quality of service. And for collect calls, the rates aren't the same for AT&T vs. MCI. >[Moderator's Note: If BT is setting the rate, then absorbing whatever small >differences there may be between inter-carrier rates via AT&T and the same >from MCI, that's fine. If I accept a collect call in the United States from >a friend (let's say vacationing in the UK), will the charge on my Illinois >Bell bill be from BT or from MCI, or AT&T, or?? PT] I can guarantee that it won't be from BTI. As has been discussed, collect calls are billed by the TERMINATING carrier, at the TERMINATING carrier's rates. If you call collect using AT&T's USA-Direct service or MCI's Call USA service, the answer is obvious. If you place the call through the originating country's international operators, the answer is not so obvious. I had a discussion with the BTI operators last night about this. They say that they just put the number into their computer and have no influence over which carrier is chosen. What we therefore don't know is how the computer routes collect calls originating through the BTI operator. What happens is going to depend on the agreements for carrying traffic that BTI has signed with AT&T, MCI, and US Sprint. It is obviously merely a small matter of programming for the billing and routing mechanism to be interconnected in a fashion which allows proper billing from AT&T if the call came on an AT&T circuit, and so on. /john