Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1991 18:09:03 GMT From: Doug Fields Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Operator Busy Break-in Now Costs $1.60 Message-ID: Organization: The Admiral's Unix System & The Grid BBS 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 487, Message 4 of 4 Lines: 48 > [Moderator's Note: But you should be aware that the called party has > the option to NOT break the connection if he so chooses, and you will > still pay the $1.60. The Operator did her work by notifying the party. > Also, if you claim an emergency exists as the reason for the busy > party to break the connection when in fact there is no emergency, then > you are probably guilty of a misdeamenor crime. Likewise if an > energency *does* exist and the called party refuses to yield the line > then he is guilty of a misdemeanor crime. PAT] Say what? I don't quite understand. I've always {thought,assumed} that using the "Emergency Break-In" for a non-emergency was a crime of some sort, but how could you possibly consider not releasing the phone line a crime? I pay good money for my phone lines, and if I don't want to listen to an operator claiming there's an emergency, regardless if there is one or not, then it is my right- after all, I pay for the line for my use -- not for someone claiming an emergency. Unfortunately I have been the "butt end" of many prank calls of people claiming "emergencies." Sometimes it is just someone who wishes to speak to another member of the family, but I have never enocountered a ligimate emergency. I consider it an invasion of privacy also. Every time this happens I query the operator for information, such as "what number is the person calling from" and "who is it" (a "John" or "Jane" answer does NOT suffice). The operator generally refuses to answer or simply says "talk to the person and find out." I'm not likely to break a conversation for someone I don't know. If someone wants to interrupt my phone call, they'd better be ready to answer any question I might ask. Well, enough of my ranting. Doug Fields -- 100 Midwood Road, Greenwich, CT 06830 --- (FAX) +1 203 661 2996 uucp: uunet!areyes!admiral!doug ------- Thank you areyes/mail and wizkid/news! Internet: fields-doug@cs.yale.edu --------------- (Voice@Home) +1 203 661 2967 BBS: (HST/V32) +1 203 661 1279; (MNP6) -2967; (PEP/V32) -2873; (V32/V42) -0450 [Moderator's Note: What you pay for is the right to use your telephone in accordance with published tariffs, one or more of which address the scenario of emergency requests for the use of the line, etc. And if someone plays games and abuses you in this way, you are perfectly within your rights to tear them apart when you answer their call. It has happened to me, and that is exactly what I do. PAT]