Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!bu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Measured Local Service Message-ID: <68911@bu.edu.bu.edu> Date: 17 Nov 90 02:11:53 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 54 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 828, Message 5 of 7 "Sander J. Rabinowitz" writes: > "As a free service to you, we have kept track of the number of local > calls you've made this month so you can see if you save money with our > measured service. This month, you made -0- local calls--therefore, > you would have saved $3.44 this month had you used our other plan." This is very scary and you should be concerned. Most telcos have discovered that PUCs and equivalents are most reluctant to allow the summary discontinuance of unmeasured residence service, so they use a more sophisticated approach these days. Step one involves switching as many people over to measured as possible. Reps are primed to push measured service as a way of saving money. To this end, in areas that offer both measured and unmeasured residence service, the pricing is set up to make measured as attractive to as many as possible. One approach is to use a generous allowance for measured service. Another is to price unmeasured in the stratosphere. Then, when a majority of customers have measured service, the telco goes to the PUC and argues that unmeasured service is no longer in real demand and that it would have minor reactions to its discontinuance. At some point, the PUC gives in and unmeasured service goes away. The first subsequent action by telco is to remove the allowance. This is easy, since it is not technically a rate increase. Then the monthly rate for measured becomes as high as the former unmeasured rate and telco has what it wants: every bit of facility usage paid for. > Now I KNOW for each of the last five months, more than 50 local calls > per month were made on that line. (I made many of them myself. =) > Meanwhile, my own telephone bill doesn't have that message, even > though my line also has the unlimited calling feature. Events have led me to believe that telcos (at least Pac*Bell) do not have a foolproof way of monitoring local traffic on individual lines. On more than one occasion, I have had measured lines that are NEVER used for local outgoing and have large Zone 1 usage ticketed. Calls to the business office result in the rep freely removing the calls ("what do you think the usage was, Mr. Higdon?"). This does not cause me to have a great deal of confidence in local metering. > Is this something for the local public service commission to look at? > It seems like a harmless computer glitch, but I can't shake the > feeling that something fishy is going on here. You betcha. You may be headed down the slippery slope of measured-only service. Watch out! John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !