Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Tue, 30 Apr 91 21:51:00 PST From: Dave Leibold Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Payphones and Such Reply-to: dleibold@attmail.com Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu 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 330, Message 4 of 9 Lines: 38 Danny Padwa wrote in the Digest: % In article , Ed_Greenberg@3mail.3com.com % writes: % > I have vague recollections of a service that allowed 25 cent calls all % > over New York State for a maximum of 30 seconds. It was specifically % > available at Grand Central Station (and probably Penn Station too) and % > was designed for "meet me at the station at 5:06" type of calls. % Yup ... that was exactly how this worked. It was introduced back in % the days of ten cent local calls in New York. % New York Tel introduced these phones in Penn Station, Grand Central (I % guess), and JFK International Arrivals (and perhaps other places ... % I've only used them at Penn). It was quite a deal ... for a quarter % you could call anywhere in the state (even Buffalo!) for 30 seconds % ... at which point you got cut off with no warning or mercy. Downtown Miami has a few of the "Anywhere America" payphones; it costs 30c/minute to call to any place in the USA. It costs $1/min to call Canada or points in (809) like Bahamas, Jamaica, etc., and (if memory serves correctly) $2/min overseas. There are some COCOTs at a nearby convenience store that will allow calls to a few select 900 numbers on relatively harmless topics (a sports line was one of the choices from what I recall). The charges for these calls didn't seem too far out of line from other 900 numbers, though the COCOTs undoubtedly might take a super big gulp of cash in other ways. David Leibold replies to: dleibold@attmail.com or c/o The Super Continental BBS +1 407 731.0388 Dave Leibold - via IMEx node 89:681/1 Dave.Leibold@f135.n82.z89.onebdos.UUCP