Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!umich!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: jgo@mcgp1.uucp (John Opalko, N7KBT)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Cellular Airtime for Call-Forwarding
Message-ID: <14067@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 26 Oct 90 01:19:58 GMT
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Reply-To: jgo@mcgp1.uucp
Organization: McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc., Seattle
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 767, Message 1 of 8


In article <13891@accuvax.nwu.edu> DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Douglas
Scott Reuben) writes:
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 753, Message 1 of 6

>It >would be nice if this time I could refute that argument by giving them
>a list of systems which are a bit more enlightened, and do not charge
>airtime for call-forwarding.

All of our markets (McCaw Cellular One) charge a monthly fee for the feature.

These markets do not charge anything extra for call forwarding:

	Alaska         	Denver        Kansas City      Las Vegas
	Madison         Minneapolis   Oklahoma City    Seattle
	Tulsa

These markets charge a flat fee per forwarded call (typically 10 cents):

	Fort Smith      Fresno        Santa Barbara    	Ventura

These markets charge a per-minute rate for forwarded calls (typically 7 to
10 cents per minute):

	Portland        Salinas/Monterey   Salt Lake City

These markets charge airtime for conditional forwarding but not immediate
forwarding:

	Austin          Bryan/College Station   Corpus Christi
	San Antonio     Temple/Killeen


These markets charge airtime for all forwarded calls:

	Indiana         Little Rock    	Pittsburgh   Reno
	Sacramento      Santa Rosa	Spokane      Stockton/Modesto

The reason for a call-forwarding charge (I guess; I'm a Unix hacker,
not a billing type) is that the forwarding is not established at the
Telco, but rather at the cellular switch.  When you forward a call,
there are *two* trunks in use between the zone office and the cellular
switch, instead of just one.  Our switch stays in the loop (acting as
a sort-of tandem) until the call is ended.  Therefore, the Telco
charges us twice the rate that it would normally ("x" number of
Erlangs on two trunks instead of one).

The reason some markets charge for conditional (busy/no answer) call
forwarding and not immediate is the switch has to page your mobile
and, if you're in the service area (and powered up) and not busy, set
up a voice channel and initiate ringing to see if you answer.  If the
switch gets no page response or no answer, the call has to be torn
down and rerouted to your forwarding number.  For immediate
forwarding, the switch just has to see that your feature flag is set
and reroute the call without using any of the cell-site trunks or RF
equipment, i.e., it's cheaper.

Whether charging the full airtime rate is reasonable or not, well, I'm
not going to get into that.  :-)

Hope this helps,

John Opalko
McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc.
jgo@mcgp1.UUCP