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From: johns@scroff.uk.sun.com (John Slater)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: 144 Access Barred on Mercury Phones
Message-ID: <10100@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 24 Jul 90 10:27:20 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 514, Message 8 of 9


In article <9936@accuvax.nwu.edu>, robertsn@iosg.enet.dec.com (Nigel
Roberts 0860 578600) writes:

>Credit card calls cost a minimum of 50p. One gotcha is that the
>follow-on call button has no effect save that of eliminating the need
>to swipe the card again -- you will still be charged a (second) 50p
>minimum fee.

Is this not the case with BT credit-card payphones? I was under the
inpression that they had a similar 50p minimum charge per call. If
they let you make multiple calls for a single 50p minimum charge, then
I'm pleasantly surprised with BT. Anyone know what the story is on
this? I don't see one of these beasties very often, so I can't try it
out.

>But if you dial 144 (the access code for non-operator calls using
>Chargecard) you get "BARRED CALL" on the phone's display.

>Equal access? Forget it.

Hmmm ...

(1) 131 is barred on BT payphones, so there's equal inter-company
inflexibility

(2) 131 is also barred from Mercury payphones (so you can't use your
own account on them) - at least they're being consistent!

Not so much Equal Access as Equal Refusal  :-(


John Slater
Sun Microsystems UK, Gatwick Office