Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 14 May 91 15:31:39 GMT From: Chip.Olson Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Is the GTE Airfone Public? 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 360, Message 4 of 11 Lines: 39 In article , leryo@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Leryo Malbito) writes: > BUT the point of my letter was not to promote GTE Airfone, rather to > ask for someone to help me define 'Public'. The way the Airfone is > set up now, one MUST have some sort of credit card in order to get a > dial tone. Not everyone has a credit card. I feel they should at > least make some sort of provision regarding the use of an AT&T card. > They accept it, but you must have the actual card, not just the > number. I had always assumed that the reason for their insistence on the actual slab of plastic was to prevent people from, er, accidentally tucking the phone into their briefcases. Not that the phone is at all useful on the ground, of course, but there's probably plenty of people who would walk off with it just because it's not nailed down. > [Moderator's Note: I don't really see what the big deal is, > considering nearly everyone has some credit card or another which is > accepted. I'm one of the exceptions. But then again, my lifestyle isn't one that involves making phone calls from planes. :-) > It might be interesting though to see them develop a coin / > paper money operated device (a lot like those vending machines at the > post office and the train station) which accept up to twenty dollar > bills into which the money could be inserted on request following the > manual connection of your call by the GTE operator. It would be interesting, but I don't see how they could make such a machine light enough for an airline to want to put it on its planes. Profit margins in the airline industry are tight enough without things like this taking up weight capacity that could be used for fare-paying warm bodies. Chip Olson, UMass_Amherst ceo@ucs.umass.edu | colson@ecs.umass.edu