Washington Urges Giving States Power Over Amtrak

hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Jeff nor Lisa) wrote:
> Renting phones was a separate issue from LD competition and ended
> separately, prior to divesture. Our area rental was 90c a month.
> There were some advantages--they fixed your phone, and THEY were
> responsible to track down any problems regardless of cause or source.

You can still rent phones from AT&T. The monthly price can be as high
as the cost of buying a cheap phone.

> Why don't pay phones have booths anymore?

Some do. Look in the lobby of the Guggenheim Museum.

> How come you can't get an operator to quote you a rate before
> making an LD call?

An automated system that did this would be great. (Unlike, say, the
automated voice response system that now provides toll-free directory
assistance.)

Or just use Onesuite, where calls to anywhere in the lower 48 are 2.5
cents a minute, which can be cheaper than intra-LATA toll calls in
many instances.

-Apr

AllstonParkingRefugee@m (Allston Parking Refugee) wrote

> > Renting phones was a separate issue from LD competition and ended
> > separately, prior to divesture. Our area rental was 90c a month.
> > There were some advantages--they fixed your phone, and THEY were
> > responsible to track down any problems regardless of cause or source.


> You can still rent phones from AT&T. The monthly price can be as high
> as the cost of buying a cheap phone.

It's not at all the same thing. Under the Bell System, they were
responsible for any and all troubles in a call--from your phone
to the recipients' phone. That could be the telephone set, house
wiring, central office loop, inter office trunks, toll lines, etc.

Renting today gives you nothing but the set itself.




> > Why don't pay phones have booths anymore?

> Some do. Look in the lobby of the Guggenheim Museum.

There are a few phone booths left here and there, but most
are gone, and the process accelerated by divesture.

Jeff nor Lisa wrote:

> There are a few phone booths left here and there, but most
> are gone, and the process accelerated by divesture.

Where does Superman change clothes?

I think the problem was addressed in one of the sequels.

(But not in *Lois and Clark*.)
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@att.net

AllstonParkingRefugee@m (Allston Parking Refugee) wrote
> Really? I thought local calls (which means anything in the 5
> boroughs) were 10.6 cents untimed, with a 40% discount during the
> evening and a 65% discount on nights and weekends.
>
> According to Joel Rubin, there are still households in the city that
> have unlimited calling plans grandfathered in from the last time they
> offered them, where calls were only free within the immediate
> neighborhood.


You mean to say there is no unlimited (flat rate) calling plan
for local calls (ie within one's borough) for NYC telephone
subscribers?

Geez, Philadelphians always had a choice between limited or
unlimited calling plans for all calls within city limits (and
adjacent suburban towns if one lived near the city border).
(Roughly, the city of Phila is about the same size as a NYC
borough).

For a fairly steep price, one can get unlimited calling for
throughout the Philadelphia metropolitan area (city and
suburbs up to about 20 miles out).

Are there still party lines in NYC? Pennsylvania eliminated them.

Allston Parking Refugee wrote:
>
> davidg@email.com (David J. Greenberger) wrote:
> > The 2.5-cent rate only applies to calls through a local access
> > number. On most NYC residential phone lines, a local call costs 9
> > cents.
>
> Really? I thought local calls (which means anything in the 5
> boroughs) were 10.6 cents untimed, with a 40% discount during the
> evening and a 65% discount on nights and weekends.

No, a few months ago the rates were restructured to reduce the call
rate from 10.6 to 9 cents but to also eliminate the discounts so
the new rate applied at all time. (Since I make all my calls after
midnight, my local calling bill instantly almost-tripled with no
change in calling activity.)

hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Jeff nor Lisa) wrote:
> AllstonParkingRefugee@m (Allston Parking Refugee) wrote
> > According to Joel Rubin, there are still households in the city that
> > have unlimited calling plans grandfathered in from the last time they
> > offered them, where calls were only free within the immediate
> > neighborhood.
>
> You mean to say there is no unlimited (flat rate) calling plan
> for local calls (ie within one's borough) for NYC telephone
> subscribers?

About 5 years ago, they reinstituted an unlimited plan. (I should
have said the *previous* time they offered them.) I believe the
current plan has unlimited calling in all 5 boroughs, which
distinguishes it from the previous unlimited plan.

> Are there still party lines in NYC? Pennsylvania eliminated them.

I think there are some grandfathered party lines remaining.

-Apr