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From: leonard%percival%reed@tektronix.tek.COM (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Baby Bell Credit Cards
Message-ID: <746@percival.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Jun-87 22:08:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: percival.746
Posted: Tue Jun 23 22:08:37 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Jun-87 07:15:29 EDT
References: <8706112031.AA02528@jade.berkeley.edu> <8706161923.AA17642@ima.ISC.COM>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: Leonard Erickson <leonard%percival%reed%tektronix.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET>
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Approved: telecom@buit1.bu.edu


In article <8706161923.AA17642@ima.ISC.COM> think!ima!johnl@buit1.bu.edu (John R. Levine) writes:
<
<I'd be interested in hearing if there's any action planned for equal access
<to pay phones. I know about the credit card phones found at airports; I was
<more interested in regular pay phones. Is there any compelling reason that I
<can make and pay for an AT&T call at a pay phone but not a Sprint call?
<
<John Levine, ima!johnl or Levine@YALE.somethingorother
<---
<John R. Levine, Javelin Software Corp., Cambridge MA +1 617 494 1400
<{ ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something
<U.S. out of New Mexico!

John, you can't even guarantee that you can call 911 without a quarter on some
pay phones, much less use a credit card (anybody's). Seems that there are now
pay phones that aren't owned by the local phone co. The most common locations
for such locally are in movie theaters. 

These phones won't even give you a dial tone until you put in a quarter. If you
call 911 (and possiblyt a _very few_ other numbers) the money is returned. But
you still have to _have_ it in the first place. And they will require you to
keep on feeding coins even if you are making a credit card call. 

-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]		...!tektronix!reed!percival!!bucket!leonard
"I used to be a hacker. Now I'm a 'microcomputer specialist'.
You know... I'd rather be a hacker."