Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: John Higdon Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: COCOTery Message-ID: <12453@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 21 Sep 90 06:22:48 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 38 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 668, Message 3 of 9 An informal cruise of COCOTs in the "Post PUC Reform Era", reveals that little if anything has changed. Every (read that EVERY) COCOT that I have fiddled with since that fateful day in August when all was supposed to be made right has at least one significant PUC violation. Some are still charging $0.25 for local calls. Some restrict 950. Most restrict 811. A few don't allow end-to-end DTMF signaling. None allow 10XXX dialing. None post rates or instructions on how to access different carriers. So what is the point of regulation? COCOT owners will do what they please, anyway they please. No one will enforce anything in this arena. I have reported many of the more flagrant violators by phone and in writing, using a Pac*Bell form designed expressly for the purpose. Not one reported phone has yet cleaned up its act. So what is to be done about these things? Personally, I replaced my GE Mini cellular phone with a Motorola flip phone so that I could always carry it with me. I'd rather pay a few cents more to a cellular provider than to COCOT scum. The principle of COCOTs has got to be near the top of the list of "bad things" to come out of divestiture. To those of you who have groused about the impracticality of making international calls from payphones, I have a comment: It will only get worse. To the degree that COCOTs take over and displace Utility payphones, casual public use of this country's telephone network will disappear. Not only is it impractical to call Fiji, it is also impossible to call across town to retrieve voice mail messages. Instead of becoming more useful, the public telephone has become practically useLESS. COCOTs have certainly played a part in the roaring success of cellular communications. You don't suppose... John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !