Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!attctc!vector!telecom-gateway From: munnari!ucsvc.unimelb.edu.au!U5434122@uunet.uu.net Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Who Pays For International DA? Message-ID: Date: 20 Sep 89 03:51:00 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: The University of Melbourne 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 388, message 8 of 8 > 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? Sorry to disappoint you, but I have rung international DA in Oz number of times. Mostly, the Operator does not disconnect me while she makes the inquiry, and sometimes I have assisted in clarifying the address. Once, when asking for a UK number I was connected to the London operator and allowed to make the enquiry myself. The London operator and I then chatted until the Sydney operator disconnected us. > [Moderator's Note: There is no 'international DA operator' that I am > aware of. The AT&T long distance operator simply handles every foreign In USA maybe, not Oz. [Moderator's Note: It seems to be a Chicago phenomena. I just dial double zero, and the AT&T operators here insist on ringing up wherever and doing all the talking themselves. What's funny is when I get one here who can barely speak English (the rule these days, not the exception) and she is trying to question the operator in India or Singapore for me. I have to wonder sometimes what operators in those countries think of their American counterparts in the past few years. Remember when all Europe-bound traffic went through the international toll center in White Plains, NY and the AT&T operators there were at the least bi-linqual if not tri-linqual? PT]