Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken!telecom-request From: DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Douglas Scott Reuben) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: New PIN for my AT&T Card? Message-ID: Date: 29 May 91 05:49:44 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 72 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 407, Message 4 of 8 I just got this in the mail from AT&T: Dear Mr. Douglas Reuben, In a few weeks, you will be receiving a new AT&T Calling Card to replace the AT&T Calling Card you now carry. When it arrives, you'll notice that your new card looks different. It even has a DIFFERENT ACCOUNT NUMBER FROM YOUR CURRENT AT&T CARD. (Emphasis added). In order to comply with government requirements, AT&T is no longer sharing card numbers with your local telephone company. Now, AT&T is issuing new card numbers that are exclusive to AT&T. Your new AT&T Calling Card will continue to provide all the advantages you've grown to expect from AT&T. [Stuff about verifying the present account you have with AT&T] [They list a number for "changes to your account" as 800-447-2000. So does this mean that we will all need to know at least *two* PIN numbers now? And how is everyone supposed to know that "If it's a local call use my BOC card, while if it's an inter-LATA call use my AT&T card"? How many people actually can tell in advance what is a intra- compared to an inter-LATA call? Example: You are in Greenwich, CT. You want to call NYC. Who gets the call? NYTel or AT&T? You then want to call to Poughkeepsie, also in New York State. Who gets it? Finally, you want to call Fisher's Island, in area code 516 for Long Island, NY? (Ans.: NYTel, AT&T, AT&T.) Now I don't consider my friends, parents, and relatives to be all that ignorant on how to use a telephone, but I just can't see how THIS is going to be explained to them by AT&T and/or the BOCs. AT&T and the BOCs sure didn't do a good job when it came to warning people about AOSs until quite late in the game; I am wondering how much more confusion this nonsense will cause. Note that if I use MCI or Sprint, which have similar calling card setups (via an 800 or 950 number), I can usually make INTRA and INTER LATA calls on the same card, and even on the same call. (The charges may be higher for INTRA LATA calls than what the BOC/GTE/local companies charge, however). This works quite infrequently with AT&T's system, ie, rarely can you "sequence" (make multiple calls) from INTER LATA to INTRA LATA. In the event than any AT&T Calling Card people area reading this, all I can say is that this is quite disappointing. I assume His Honor managed to have something to do with this ("government" = Green, J., right? ;) ), but unless AT&T starts allowing local (INTRA) LATA calls to be completed on its card, I think I may just get ITT or MetroMedia or someone with free 950 access, where I can use the same card for both INTRA and INTER LATA calls. (No big deal to AT&T I'm sure, but a lot less trouble for me!) Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu // dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet [Moderator's Note: Did they specifically say you could NOT make local calls on the card or would NOT be able to use the local telco's card to make calls on the AT&T network? PAT]