Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: 900 Number Woes
Message-ID: <12320@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 19 Sep 90 22:33:00 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL
Lines: 21
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 656, Message 1 of 10


In article <Digest v10,Iss647>, Larry quoted an interesting report
from the {Cincinnati Post} about how a 15-year-old boy ran up a
$40,500 bill between June 30 and August 22 on an MCI 900 number.

While I favor no "free speech rights" for purveyors of slime by
telephone, there was something that just seemed strange in the
numbers:

The time period described is 54 days long.  If the calls were $25
minimum each, that amount would have bought 1,620 calls.  In 54 days,
it would have taken 30 calls EACH day, 7 days a week to run up that
bill.

Again, while I hold no excelsior banner for MCI or Cincinnati Bell,
that amount of usage by a teenager seems to me it should have raised
parental interest.

I think there's more to this story than was printed and we do have an
issue of parental responsibility to investigate before jumping to
conclusions.