Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: decom@dgp.toronto.edu (Jonathan Haruni) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Some notes on the UK phone system Message-ID: Date: 23 Mar 89 16:10:19 GMT Sender: news@vector.UUCP Organization: University of Toronto Lines: 31 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 106, message 2 of 7 In article dhesi@bsu-cs.uucp writes: >This [phonecards] seems to be of dubious value. >What is the difference between >buying a phone card from a grocery store and then using it in a >telephone, as opposed to just putting the money into the telephone >directly? This just seems to add an extra step. In Britain, you pay by time for even local calls, so you tend to go through alot of coins. And the coins are bigger and heavier as well. The phonecards save you the frustration of running out of coins during a call, the frustration of having your calls interrupted every minute by "more coins please" noises, and the frustration of sewing up holes in your pockets. >The only advantage I see is that you can user paper money to buy the >phone card, while telephones will only take coins. A little advance >preparedness eliminates this advantage too, and you don't have to hunt >for a place to buy the phone card before you use the telephone. The cards come in denominations ranging from the equivalent of $3 to about $100. So you buy one which you know will last you a reasonable amount of time. They are particularly useful for long distance calls, because you get the customer-dialled rate without feeding a continuous stream of coins into the phone. >-- >Rahul Dhesi UUCP: !{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi > ARPA: dhesi@bsu-cs.bsu.edu Jonathan Haruni decom@dgp.toronto.edu