Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: jimmy@icjapan.info.com (Jim Gottlieb) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: FCC Proposed Rule Changes; Equal Access Message-ID: Date: 18 Feb 91 10:15:30 GMT Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Reply-To: Jim Gottlieb Organization: Info Connections, Tokyo, Japan Lines: 36 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 129, Message 7 of 12 Originator: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu In article the AP Wire Service writes: > MCI and US Sprint customers already can use either 800 or 950 >numbers or dial a 10XXX access code. > But AT&T depends solely on the access code. That company has >lobbied the FCC to require 10XXX access, saying it would cost as much >as $50 million to develop and $250 million a year to operate an 800 >access number. I can partially understand AT&T's reluctance to set up an 800 number, given the marketing costs involved and the fact that 10XXX exists. But I think they should bite the bullet. 10XXX will never provide the access that an 800 number does. The problem is that 10XXX+0+ must, by necessity, be blocked quite often. Go into most large comapnies and ask to use the phone. You will usually be offered a telephone that is restricted to local calls and 800 numbers. The business can not allow any type of 0+ calling because they can not risk that you may dial 0+ and make the call person-to-person or do some other billing that will come back to them. Hotels usually have toll terminal trunks to get around this problem, but ordinary businesses do not have such lines, and must therefore block 0+. AT&T must get a nationwide 950 or 800 number if it wishes that its customers be able to use AT&T long distance from any telephone. Jim Gottlieb Info Connections, Tokyo, Japan E-Mail: or Fax: +81 3 3237 5867 Voice Mail: +81 3 3222 8429