Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!telecom From: GUMBY@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU (David Vinayak Wallace) Newsgroups: mod.telecom Subject: Pulse metering Message-ID: <8601280718.AA00407@ucbvax.berkeley.edu> Date: Mon, 27-Jan-86 03:40:41 EST Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8601280718.AA00407 Posted: Mon Jan 27 03:40:41 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 29-Jan-86 04:23:19 EST References: Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 24 Approved: telecom@xx.lcs.mit.edu Date: Sat 25 Jan 86 10:11:28-PST From: Ole Jorgen Jacobsen The latest in pay-phones in the UK is the PhoneCard, you buy cards which come in various values, 20 units, 40 units and so on. (One "unit" = 10 pence). These cards are used on special phones which display the remaining units on your card (I believe they are stored magnetically). Again you pay for what you get and you're not faced with additional calling card or credit card overhead charges. Best of all, you don't need change! They have these in Japan. Unfortunately, there aren't many phone which accept them, so at this point they're more of a novelty. The NTT man I was visiting in the south of Japan was amused that I used one to call him from Tokyo. Another fact of about using Japanese pay phones is that, due to the shortage of international lines, pay phones are dropped to the bottom priority for (international) outgoing trunks. Worse yet, the pay phones themselves are specialised -- only the green ones (the same ones which accept the cards) will make international calls. So in effect, if you want to make an international call from a pay phone in Japan, do it at night from the centre of a big city.