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From: Robert.Savery@f666.n285.z1.fidonet.org (Robert Savery)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: AT&T Removing Discounts
Message-ID: <8527@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 1 Jun 90 02:18:03 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 404, Message 5 of 8


>.....what is the justification for discounts for TDD customers.
        
My understanding is the discounts started years ago as part of AT&T's
nice guy image. The primary reasoning behind them is the relative
length of the calls. It takes a lot longer to type out a sentance than
it does to speak it. Also having to type out things hearing people
automatically pick up would add a tremendous amount of time to the
length of a call. For example, when I call my mom, I might say "HI Mom
! What's going on?" A TDD user would have to type out "Hi Mom ! It's
Bob. What's going on?" My mom would know it's me, but a deaf mom would
not have any idea who it is without the extra words.  I do not know if
technology has increased the speed of TDD conversations since the last
time I used it but on that occasion, it took me approx ten minutes to
ask a deaf employee of ours where the storeroom keys where!
         
If TDD conversations can now be conducted at the same speed as spoken
ones, then AT&T has a reason for dropping the discounts. However, I do
not think anyone ( other than maybe a professional transcriber ) can
type as fast as you can talk.
     
As someone who has used TDD before ( granted it was five years ago ),
I think AT&T should continue the discounts. I also think the FCC
should require all LD companies to offer them.
      
Perhaps at some point in the future, technology will make the
discounts unnecessary ( ie... videophones for signing or possibly a
system for people to send thought waves ...). But until such time,
TDD long distance discounts are as necessary as handicapped parking
spaces and ramps on curbs.
  
 
                               Bob

 [1:285/666@fidonet] DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha (1:285/666)

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