Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Jeff Carroll Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Mercury in the UK: A Question Message-ID: <6197@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 9 Apr 90 18:54:05 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Jeff Carroll Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle Lines: 27 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 242, Message 6 of 9 In article <5997@accuvax.nwu.edu> contact!djcl@uunet.uu.net (woody) writes: >I have heard about this Mercury service in the UK, which is something >like a competing phone company. Originally, I believe they were into >public telephone service (like COCOTs or something like that). >Are they into long distance, also, in the manner that Sprint or MCI >would be in the US? If so, how would calls be dialed through (ie. what >is the UK equivalent of 10XXX+ or 950 service, if any?). Disclaimer: I don't live in the UK; these observations are based on a brief visit last year. Mercury long distance service is available to individuals on a subscription basis, analogous to US "dial 1" service. In order to access Mercury away from home, you have to use a special Mercury phone. In most of London that I saw, Mercury phones were much in evidence, though not as plentiful (of course) as BT phones. Don't know of much if any functional difference between the Mercury and BT card phones; about half of BT's phones these days seem to use phone cards. Jeff Carroll carroll@atc.boeing.com