Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Thu, 16 May 91 10:29 PDT From: John Higdon Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Third Party Billing Fraud, and New England Tel's Answer Reply-To: John Higdon Message-ID: Organization: Green Hills and Cows 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 366, Message 6 of 11 Lines: 43 Larry Jones writes: > Here in Ohio, the PUC ruled exactly the opposite -- Cincinnati Bell > had been offering one-time-only free 900 blocking and PUCO ordered > them to stop! PUCO insisted that they charge a fee sufficient to > recover their costs. Ain't regulation grand? Here in kinder, gentler California, the "free" blocking is picked up by the information providers. In its usual mismanaged way, Pac*Bell originally offered "California 976" without any organization, control, or blocking even proposed. Calls from outside the state could easily reach California 976 numbers and since no billing mechanism was in place, the IP just got stiffed. In fact, a favorite pastime of out-of-staters was to call 976 numbers in CA since they were, in effect, free (except for the toll charges). Then an outcry went up from both telephone customers and the IPs. Customers complained that little Jerry could call the heavy breathing sex numbers and run up the family phone bill. IPs complained that Pac*Bell was graciously removing charges right and left ("recharges") and that it was impossible to get a handle on revenue. Then came blocking. People at Pac*Bell realized that a few characters typed in at RCMAC could prevent calls to 900/976. So they put a grossly inflated price tag on the concept of blocking and then slapped the information providers with the "cost". Pac*Bell became the telcom hero of the day. And it found yet another scam to drain the pockets of Californians. Since the blocking scheme cannot be used except in stored-program-type offices, and the PUC requires blocking be provided to all who request it (if at all available), a cheap and dirty way to get out of a crossbar switch is to order blocking. A friend had a crossbar number in an office that was also served by an ESS. Pac*Bell informed him that the ESS was "closed" (not accepting new lines) even if he wanted custom calling features. I told him to request 900/976 blocking. He now has an ESS-served number, changed at no charge by Pac*Bell. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !