Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 25 Jun 91 08:50:06 PST From: "Mark R. Jenkins 619-458-2794" Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: The Way I Built and Operated an AOS Message-ID: Organization: Science Applications Int'l Corp./San Diego 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 491, Message 8 of 8 Lines: 38 In article , emory!Dixie.Com!jgd@gatech. edu (John G. DeArmond) writes: > jim@equi.com (Jim Allard) writes: > Preface to comments: > Several years ago one other engineer and myself designed and built the > switching system for an AOS. The name will not be mentioned because > quite frankly I can't prove everything to legal standards that I'm > going to discuss. I will use this experience as the basis of my > comments. Nor will I provide any further technical details, as these > could be used to identify the AOS. Hmmm. I wonder if the rest of Mr. DeArmond's description (trapping access to LD carrier, faking operators) explains what happened to me on a trip across the US last September. I stopped in a hotel near Little Rock, Arkansas, and made a long distance call from my room. There was no way to get to AT&T by dialing (I know, I tried) so I called the hotel operator and asked for an AT&T operator. After some pauses, I got an operator which I "assumed" was AT&T and gave her my AT&T credit card number and completed the call. Upon checkout the next day I was given my room bill which included a charge for the long distance call I had made at some pretty exhorbitant rates. I explained to the person at the front desk that I had made the call through AT&T using my own credit card and that I wouldn't pay them (the motel) for the call as well. I assumed that they had just timed the call and had billed me a flat per-minute rate automatically assuming that I used their long distance carrier. They took the charge off the bill without too much arguing. However, I never received a bill from AT&T for that call. Mark Jenkins | My views do not necessarily match yours. Science Applications International Corporation