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From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: COCOT-in-Violation Label File
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Date: 8 Oct 90 00:24:14 GMT
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Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
Organization: Green Hills and Cows
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 721, Message 4 of 6


On Oct 7 at 15:02, TELECOM Moderator writes:

> A sticker
> covering the coin slot is the least of the problems with most.  PAT] 

Another liability suffered by virtually all COCOTs and not suffered by
utility phones is the requirement for AC power for operation. This
problem came to the fore during last October's shaker. There were vast
areas without power (not to mention Pacific Gas and Electric Company's
normally poor performance) and a number of people were anable to
report emergencies from inoperative COCOTs.

I remember one time, late at night, when my car was acting funny out
in the desert. No cellular service was available (there is now, thank
goodness) but there was a gas station at hand. Unfortunately, it was
closed and the COCOT was apparently powered from the pump circuit,
since it was dead. This was one of the most frightening experiences to
date related to a COCOT.

So while we're writing our dream tariff list, how about including a
requirement for a floating battery backup that will last some minimum
of, say, twelve hours?


        John Higdon         |   P. O. Box 7648   |   +1 408 723 1395
    john@bovine.ati.com     | San Jose, CA 95150 |       M o o !


[Moderator's Note: John, thanks for yet another reason why I don't
think a sticker over the coin slot is all that likely to cause a
tragedy. If the COCOT owners really cared anyway, they'd have a lot
better arrangement than they do.  PAT]