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From: larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: Re: Long Distance
Message-ID: <717@kitty.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Jan-86 09:16:36 EST
Article-I.D.: kitty.717
Posted: Thu Jan 16 09:16:36 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 20-Jan-86 06:33:59 EST
References: <82@druhi.UUCP> <729@ihopb.UUCP> <2565@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Organization: Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, NY
Lines: 58

>    There is also talk now of the phone companies eliminating the unlimited
> calls for private residences (businesses pay for every call in our area
> today). This might more fairly cause the people who use the phone the most to
> pay their fair share (assuming that the basic rates were also reduced) but it
> begs the following questions:
> 
>    1. There is no accounting information for the user to determine if the
> phone company makes a mistake.  All the business receives today is a
> statement as to how many minutes/units are used but not which calls were
> made to generate those units.  I refuse to assume that the phone company
> never makes mistakes any more than I do that the bank never makes an error
> on my checking account. On the other hand I am forced to trust the gas,
> water, and electric companies.

	Most telephone companies will log local calls for a given month or
two FOLLOWING a complaint about message unit charges, and furnish the
subscriber with the details.  However, this is after the fact.  Telephone
companies invariably stick to the story that they do not retain local
message accounting details following the issuance of a monthly statement;
a variation of this story is that detailed information with the called
number is not normally recorded  - only the net message unit charges.
I have some doubts about this, but have never been able to obtain sufficient
"inside" information to disprove these claims (revenue accounting practices
is a VERY touchy subject with telephone companies).
	For a significant charge, some telephone companies will furnish a
monthly magnetic tape containing all of the local message accounting details.
The cost of this service precludes its use except for large businesses; a
computer capable of reading the tape is also required.
	The most feasible way of keeping tabs on local message unit charges
is for businesses with newer PBX's to get a feature called Station Message
Detail Recording (SMDR), which will record on magnetic media all outside
call details.  SMDR will give a crude approximation of the telephone
company charges.  While we have SMDR of sorts on our PBX, it is not very
accurate since it cannot detect answer supervision like the telephone
company's equipment does; i.e., our SMDR "charges" for a call which never
answered or was busy.

>    2. Some people use their phones almost exclusively as an input device.
> (airline res lines for example) They pay only the basic charge for the phone
> but keep their line busy literally 24 hours a day.  This seems a bit unfair
> to me, but I have yet to think of any fairer way to handle it.

	I think the general feeling amongst telephone companies is one of
"these things tend to even out" when it comes to this issue. After all, someone
was charged for MAKING the calls.  I have never heard of any plans to charge
for incoming calls, but then again, anything is possible.  As an aside, years
ago New York Telephone never charged for incoming calls to mobile telephones
(pre-cellular days) - only outgoing calls made by the mobile telephone user.
Since mobile telephone "air time" was expensive, and since some mobile
telephone users would call people and tell them to call right back, this
billing practice of not charging for incoming calls was stopped.

==>  Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York        <==
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