Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!bu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: Jack.Winslade@f666.n285.z1.fidonet.org (Jack Winslade)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: *Long* Phone Calls -- What Does Ma Think?
Message-ID: <68873@bu.edu.bu.edu>
Date: 15 Nov 90 14:51:31 GMT
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In message <1190094024@iugate.UUCP>, "andrew M. Boardman" writes:

{ ... in regards to >>VERY<< long calls }

>  - What would one's local phone company think of this?
>  - In the expected case that they aren't too fond of losing
>    out on the megabucks for a leased line, do they have
>    legal ground telling you to stop?

Back around 1970 or so, there was a belief held by some members of the
electronic community that if you were to order two lines (in different
locations, of course), dialed one into the other and >>NEVER<< broke
the connection, there would be no bill for the call, since the billing
was done at the time the call was terminated.  Of course I never knew
anyone who really tried this.  This supposedly would work whether the
endless call was local or across the country.

This idea was reinforced when an employee of AT&T Long Lines told me
that there was a good chance that after several months, after the
billing tapes were changed several times or something like that, there
was a good chance that the equipment would 'forget' about the
connection and never bill at all, even if/when it was terminated.
 
Yes, I know about 'chasing permanents', but this was in the NYC area
circa 1970, where many of the offices were aging panel and #1 crossbar
that were held together with scotch tape and typically had such things
like unused twisted-pair jumpers banjo-strung all over the frames.
The switch crews were busy just keeping the switches up, let alone
tracing permanents (if the PS lamps weren't burned out. ;-) There was
some kind of a tape-based CAMA system that billed a whole group of
offices from a central point.  I think some of the offices still
billed for local units with 'odometer' type counters which were
photographed each month.
 
Maybe some of the 'experts' on billing systems could confirm if this
was true at that time.  I am, of course, assuming that if it were
true, the case has been dealt with and the modern billing software is
smart enough to catch it and bill for it.
 
Good Day!        


JSW

 [1:285/666@fidonet] DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha (1:285/666)
 
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