Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway
From: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: 10XXX From Pay Phones (Was: Trapping 10333 by AT&T)
Message-ID: 
Date: 27 Sep 89 02:16:51 GMT
Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US
Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us
Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA
Lines: 27
Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us
X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 412, message 4 of 9

In article  ficc!peter@uunet.uu.net
writes:
>I would hardly think that Sprint (my carrier of choice) has no access to LA!

When I was at LAX last week, I had no trouble sticking my FON card
into one of the PacTel card reader phones and making a Sprint call.
(Which is more than you can do here in Boston, the card reader phones
at Logan don't know about MCI or Sprint cards.)

It is true that although MCI and Sprint are set up to take calls from
pay phones, a lot of the COs don't seem to handle 10XXX from pay
phones very well.  But I have two questions:

1 - If I dial 10333+0+number from a pay phone, I get a
familiar-sounding bong and can dial in a calling card number.  From a
non-pay phone on the same prefix, I get a live operator.  This seems
to be the case for both MCI and Sprint?  Why?

2 - When calling as above from a payphone, I can use my New England
Tel card number, which is the same as my AT&T number, of course, but I
can't use my FON card number.  Why don't they accept their own cards?
Again, the same situation holds with MCI.


John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869
johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl, Levine@YALE.edu
Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old.  -The Globe