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From: covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert  09-Jul-1990 1658)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Finland Direct (Some Problems)
Message-ID: <9536@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 9 Jul 90 21:22:57 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 470, Message 8 of 10


>My brother is as an exchange student in Lawton, Michigan. He has tried
>to call our family here at Finland via the Finland Direct service.
>Our PTT has advertised these two numbers:

>1-800-232-0358 via ATT
>1-800-283-4652 via MCI

When I call either of these numbers, I reach a tone _in_Finland_ that
I am not familiar with, but it may simply be a "please wait" tone.  I
suspect the problem is with the grade of service provided by the
operators in Finland.  The tone is roughly 500ms of 950 Hz, 250ms of
950 Hz, 1.5 sec of 1400 Hz.  After a long time of no revenue due to no
answer, AT&T gives up and says "Your call cannot be completed at this
time in the country you are calling."  On MCI it eventually times out
to a reorder (120 interruptions per minute).
 
>1) Is it true that there can bee 1-800 numbers NOT ACCESSIBLE via
>either ATT/MCI

Any carrier can provide 800 service, but I can verify that 232 is the
AT&T prefix and 283 is the MCI prefix.
 
>2) If 1) is true, can my brother access another carrier to make the
>1-800 call and does he get any additional charges on that?

No.  But that wouldn't help, since the problem is obviously in
Finland, and not here.
 
>3) Do these numbers work at all? (PLEASE, I don't want to get such
>news that 4000 telecom readers blocked the Finland Direct service just
>to test if it works..)

It may just be a matter of being patient enough to wait for the
Finland Direct number to answer, though if you're put at the end of
the queue of all the people in Finland calling the international
operator each time you call, you may never get through.

One of the main reasons for USA Direct (the first Home Country Direct
service ever implemented) being established was that it often took a
very long time for operators in many European countries to answer;
Americans are used to operators answering in something between two and
ten seconds.

Your brother should probably simply call the AT&T operator and place
a collect call.


/john