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From: sneaky!gordon@utacfd.arl.utexas.edu (Gordon Burditt)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Mental Harassment
Message-ID: <13200@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 8 Oct 90 12:32:40 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 724, Message 7 of 7


>On the radio and in the newspaper today have been articles
>about a state mental patient making dozens of obscene phone calls to a
>couple.  The calls started last Friday and kept up over the weekend.

Why can't the telco get involved in this?  

"Hello, Director of Mental Health Services?  We have traced a number
of harassing calls as originating at your facility.  As you may know,
the subscriber is responsible for calls made from his phone.  If these
calls continue, we will disconnect all your phone service, except that
in an emergency, they will be allowed to dial '911', or be dialed from
'911'.

"You mean you're going to disconnect all the phones at the hospital?"

"No, sir, your account covers all the phones at all the State Mental
Health facilities in the state.  Oops, we just had another call.  I'm
sorry, but we're disconnecting your service.  Please come to our
Business Office on Monday, since we're five minutes from closing now,
and you won't be able to call.  <click!>"

It would seem to me that calls like these are just as much an
emergency and "harm to the network" (therefore justification for
immediate disconnection) as someone whose phone is injecting 30
kiloVolts into his local loop.

		Gordon L. Burditt
		sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon


[Moderator's Note: As clever as your scenario is, of course it would
not really happen. State government and politics play a big role in
the success of any telco's existence. Another solution might be to
install all COCOT-style payphones for the patients to use. Maybe the
patients would get tired of the extremely high rates and poor grade of
service rendered. Maybe they would vandalize the phone, etc ....

 .... And speaking of COCOTs ... ( I needed that lead in!) ... in the
next issue of the Digest, you will meet a *real* *live* *COCOT*
*owner*. Yes! One has consented to be interviewed in the columns of
this little journal. They are an extremely rare breed, so treat him
gently and kindly. Watch for issue 725 to hit your email box.   PAT]