Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Japanese Payphones Message-ID: <16234@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 21 Jan 91 04:52:30 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 79 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 53, Message 3 of 7 Here is a look at coin phones in the REALLY big city -- Tokyo. No one has as I recall mentioned these on the Digest lately. The standard issue phone is green. Not pale green, but a bright flourescent knock-out shade that seems to be popular in Japan. Pink phones are "dumb" COCOTs that are found in small stores and eating establishment. Yellow and blue phones are older, less capable units that are increasingly difficult to find. All green phones have one thing in common: a card reader that accepts a stored value card that can be obtained in various denominations, up to 500 "call units". A call unit is the equivalent of 10 yen, the minimum required to "start" a call. A "local" call will exhaust a unit within a few minutes, whereas an international call will require a number of units per minute. Calls throughout Japan fall anywhere in between. The cards are readily available, including at some vending machines attached to green phones themselves. In attition to cards, most (but not all) green phones will accept 10 and 100 yen coins. While it is much more convenient to place an expensive call with a phone card, it is still possible to use coins. Green phones with a gold faceplate will allow you to dial anywhere in the world, depositing coins as you go or with the ultra convenience of the stored value card. Physically, the instruments come in many shapes and sizes, with the largest comparable to a Las Vegas slot machine (other comparisons not intended), down to the smallest which is not much larger than a standard telephone. The smaller ones are usually incapable of accepting coins. The handsets sport a noise-cancelling transmitter, and as a result are wonderful to use in noisy locations such as street corners. All green phones appear to use DTMF back to the CO. One other small difference between the NTT coin phones and US utility phones is that coin return is a local operation. If the coin was not collected by the CO, it is returned instantly when the receiver is replaced on an incomplete call. This is almost disconcerting when one is used to the small delay on domestic phones which must wait for the DC signal from the CO to return the coins. With the exceptional convenience of Japanese coin phones, there is a downside. As others have reported, calls do not go through in Japan with the reliability of the US telephone network. The percentage of failure (silence, reorder, wrong number) is significant enough to be irritating to the US user. And this is true even on NTT's newest digital exchanges. No one could offer any explanation of this and some residents were even surprised that anyone would notice. Ironically, one of the major deficiencies of NTT (lack of itemized billing -- available now at extra cost) contributes to the convenience of the coin telephones. From gold-faceplate phones, it matters not where you call. The only thing that differentiates one call from another is how fast the meter pulses tick away (one per "unit" of 10 yen). Hence, it is irrelavent how the call is paid for. A display on the front of the phone shows how many units remain. If it gets low, you deposit more yen. If it runs out, you get cut off. There is no operator who comes on the line to ask for more money. A small criticism of the card system would be concerning the lack of a recall button. When making a series of calls, one must hang up after each one and remove the card (serenaded by the most strident "b'beep-b'beep" that goes on for several seconds), then re-insert it. Socially, this may be more of a feature than a bug, since there is usually some sort of line of folks waiting to use the phone and this cacophony of beeping would alert those patiently waiting to someone making an unacceptable number of calls or call attempts. My preferance would be for a recall button. I really liked the stored value card system. It is puzzling as to why it was never introduced here. But then, more than card readers would have to be installed; the rate structure would have to change drastically. In Japan, calls cost virtually the same whether placed from NTT coin phones or from standard business or residential phones. This is certainly not true in the US. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !