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From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Kids, Call Santa For $2/minute
Message-ID: <2238@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 18 Dec 89 00:23:32 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 580, message 5 of 8


Regarding calling "Santa" on 900 and 976 services, there was a HUGE
flap here in Seattle a couple of years back when a local UHF station
ran an ad that not only asked kids to call Santa, but even instructed
the kids to hold the phone to the TV speaker while the ad produced the
DTMF tones necessary to automatically dial the call!

No one ever explained to me what would happen with the same number
being dialed at EXACTLY the same moment from all of those phones at
once, but I can imagine.

There was a big investigation, involving lots of refunds from the
telco and dial-a-porn operator that ran the ad.  The TV station also
got a black eye, as they helped produce the ad!


Tad Cook
tad@ssc.UUCP
MCI Mail: 328-8544