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From: 74066.2004@compuserve.com (Larry Rachman)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Why Aren't College Telcos Regulated?
Message-ID: <telecom-v09i0536m01@chinacat.lonestar.org>
Date: 29 Nov 89 13:22:15 GMT
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 536, message 1 of 10


   In a recent article, Ed Ravin laments about the abuses College
Telcos perpetrate upon students, and calls for more PSC involvement.

I'm not sure what its like today, but in 1976, in New York, there was
a section of the Public Service Commission Tarrifs dealing specificly
with so-called "Centrex Dormitory Service". Among the features of this
"service" were:

   If you wanted a phone, it was your only option.

   You took the number they gave you, even if it was subject to crank and
       abusive calls.

   They wouldn't sell you Touchtone, even though (at Stony Brook - #5
   XBAR) it worked by default on about half the lines.

   Intercept messages for disconnected lines would not be provided.

   Your had no choice of equipment (this was back when TELCO provided it).

 ...and so forth. On the up side, there was a clause about how the
University Centrex attendants would provide. "...all Centrex services"
for dormitory customers. This raised quite a few eyebrows when I read
it to the Telecom manager, and did result in an end to the policy of
refusing to transfer student calls.

The problem is that a student body is by nature a transient
population, and really can't make much of an impact on a regulatory
body that takes years to make a change. The only solution that comes
to mind is the possibility of bypassing the whole mess, via an
infra-red (or microwave) link to a private house down the block.


                                       Larry Rachman