Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!covert.DEC.COM!covert
From: covert@covert.DEC.COM (John R. Covert)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: BOYCOTT COCOTS!
Message-ID: <8804051448.AA23908@decwrl.dec.com>
Date: 5 Apr 88 17:42:00 GMT
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Organization: The Internet
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Approved: telecom@xx.lcs.mit.edu


	B O Y C O T T   C O C O T S ! !

When the Massachusetts DPU authorized Customer Owned Coin
Operated Telephones (COCOTs), it was done to permit competition
with New England Telephone's monopoly on coin service.  The DPU
is not likely to have realized that the current anti-consumer
situation would result.

COCOTs are invariable more expensive than New England Telephone
pay phones.  NET offers local calls for 10 cents from its payphones,
COCOTs often charge 25 cents or allow a 10 cent call for a much shorter
period than NET.

But the real problem occurs when the caller, who may not even
realize that the phone is not operated by New England Telephone,
makes a call from a COCOT using an NET or AT&T calling card.
A three-minute call from Acton to Boston, on a Saturday morning,
costs 27 cents plus a 44 cent calling card surcharge.  That same call,
placed from a COCOT, can cost $3.55!  The operator of the COCOT
will bill the caller via the caller's normal New England Telephone
bill.  The unsuspecting caller may not even realize that an NET
coin phone could have provided the call for much less.

Find the nearest New England Telephone pay phone instead.  Or use
a cellular mobile phone, which can call Boston from Acton on a Saturday
morning for 86 cents for three minutes.  A bit more than an NET coin
phone, but drastically less than a COCOT.

BOYCOTT COCOTs!

[Though written for readers in New England, readers in other parts
of the country will find a similar situation exists if COCOTs are
permitted in their states. --jrc]