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From: hpubvwa!ssc!Tad.Cook@cs.washington.edu
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Running Your Own Long Distance Company
Message-ID: <15464@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 17 Dec 90 17:44:56 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 886, Message 3 of 4


In article <15421@accuvax.nwu.edu>, bcsaic!carroll@cs.washington.edu
(Jeff Carroll) writes:

> In article <15114@accuvax.nwu.edu> phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip
> Miller) writes:

> >The {St. Louis Post Dispatch} this morning carries a story about
> >William Outten, the owner of an answering service in surburban St.
> >Louis who is now offering "free" long distance calls from Jefferson
> >county into St. Louis.

> 	An acquaintance of ours who is well known in the Seattle area
> as a telecom entrepreneur was recently unsuccessful in his efforts to
> lobby the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission for
> permission to operate this sort of business.

> 	I don't know the details. My wife speaks to this fellow much
> more often than I do, and she's not well versed in the technology.

I know who this is.  A local dial-a-porn operator (in fact, they are
one of the largest in the USA) was operating a service that was very
popular with folks in the suburbs.

Seattle has very wide Extended Area Service.  From my house in the
city I can call almost to Tacoma and Everett, and many miles east, at
no charge.  But folks outside of the city who I can call, many of whom
are served by GTE, have very limited calling.

So what this "telecom entrepeneur" did was start charging for a
service that I have done casually for my friends ever since I got
residential Centrex.  What he did was ordered up a few lines in the
city that had the ability to do Call Transfer.  He sells account
numbers to folks in the suburbs.  They call his number, his box
answers with a tone, they dial their PIN followed by the number they
want to call (which is non-toll from the box, but toll from the
suburbs).  Then the box does a hookswitch flash, gets second dial
tone, dials the number and hangs up, and bills the account 10 cents
for the call attempt.  When he started this service, customers got
billed for each attempt.  I heard that after awhile the box was
modified to listen for ringback and busy tone, and stayed on the line
long enough to determine whether or not to bill.  This must have been
a little tricky, because what does it do if the called party answers
before the first ring?

Of course this was a goldmine for our friend, and hell for the telco.
With only one line, the box could process LOTS of calls, because the
calls do not tie up the line.  As soon as one call is transferred, the
line is ready for the next call.

GTE hated it because they were losing toll from the suburbs.  US West
hated it, because this thing was tieing up one incoming and one
outgoing trunk with each call.  Eventually they got the PUC to change
the tarrif so that they were paying for each call on these lines.  You
can still do this without paying the new tarrif, as long as you are
not selling the service.

Which makes me wonder ... could I legally set up a CO-OP here in the
city to help my friends in the suburbs with this?


Tad Cook   Seattle, WA   Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA   Phone: 206/527-4089 
MCI Mail: 3288544        Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW  
USENET:...uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!ssc!tad   or, tad@ssc.UUCP