Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Torsten Lif Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Proposal: An Answering Machine I'd Love to Have Message-ID: <5155@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 13 Mar 90 11:24:44 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Torsten Lif Organization: Ellemtel Utvecklings AB, Stockholm, Sweden Lines: 35 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 172, Message 6 of 10 In article <5041@accuvax.nwu.edu> "Joel M. Snyder" writes: >In several recent articles, the moderator called for charging people >for ring-no-answer, and one reader responded by suggesting that taken >to an extreme this would mean charging you for picking up the phone. >In fact, this is already true in the voice world, depending on how you >want to divide up the basic service charge your telco charges. In the >voice world, it's unlikely to be taken to such extremes, but in the >data world. I may not be the only person to point this out, but nevertheless here goes: In Denmark you are indeed charged for "picking up the phone". The counter (on which your charges are based) first "clicks" when you lift the receiver (or more strictly: when you get the dialling tone). Danish pay-phones have no return slot. Whatever money you put in stays there. The argument for all this is that the costly part for the CO is in the *setting up* of the call; *not* in maintaining it. Even the fact that the callee does not answer his phone contains information to the caller. Needless to say, repeating auto-diallers are not a big sell on the Danish market :-) Torsten Lif ELLEMTEL Telecommunication Laboratories P.O. Box 1505, S-125 25 ALVSJO, SWEDEN Tel: +46 8 727 3788