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Date: 11 May 88 03:16:13 GMT
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From: rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu (Robert Maier)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: US Sprint and COCOTs
Message-ID: <636@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu>
Date: 10 May 88 13:16:09 GMT
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Organization: Math. Dept., Univ. of Arizona at Tucson
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Recently, to my extreme displeasure, I encountered my first COCOT.  It
was mounted on the outside wall of a convenience store just off the
Interstate north of Phoenix.

I tried to use it to place a US Sprint FON-Card (i.e., credit card)
call, but found that impossible.  It turned its touch-tone pad off
after I placed the initial call to US Sprint's 800 number!

So I decided to place my call through a US Sprint operator.  I dialed
1-800-877-8000 again, and after a few seconds got one.  But in order
to place my call, she wanted to know the number of the phone I was
calling from.  That was impossible, because this wretched COCOT had no
number on it.

She told me she couldn't place my call without it, so I spoke to her
supervisor.  And to her supervisor's supervisor.  Finally they managed
to get Sprint Customer Service to trace my call.  But all Customer
Service could supply was my phone's exchange.  They had no way of
getting the final four digits of its phone number.

This posed a problem, because (as I learned through overhearing the
various conversations) US Sprint's billing software requires the
operator to punch in all seven digits of the originating phone's
number when placing operator-assisted calls.  Finally the Customer
Service type invented a random four-digit string for them to punch in.

This nonsense occupied over 20 minutes of my time.  (In order not to
seem petty, I won't mention that I was standing outside, in shorts, in
a freezing wind...)  But it provides food for thought.  It suggests
that

0) COCOTs are anathema.  (We already knew that.)

1) US Sprint's billing software is buggy.  (We knew that too...)

2) The reason why US Sprint's monthly bills do not list the
   originating phone numbers of FON-Card calls is that they don't have
   them.  (All the bills specify is the originating city, i.e., the 
   exchange.)

3) In the case of operator-assisted calls, US Sprint operators normally
   are wholly dependent on the customer for the originating phone
   number.  It's not clear whether they can even check whether
   the customer is giving the correct area code.

Fellow US Sprint users are urged to complain about these points.

The near-impossibility of placing US Sprint calls from modern COCOTs,
their inability to resolve phone numbers completely, and the lack of
security implicit in (3) altogether make US Sprint look less and less
like a bargain...

======================================================================
Robert S. Maier   | Internet: rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu
Dept. of Math.    | UUCP: ..{allegra,cmcl2,hao!noao}!arizona!amethyst!rsm
Univ. of Arizona  | Bitnet: maier@arizrvax
Tucson, AZ  85721 | Phone: +1 602 621 6893  /  +1 602 621 2617
--
Robert S. Maier   | Internet: rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu
Dept. of Math.    | UUCP: ..{allegra,cmcl2,hao!noao}!arizona!amethyst!rsm
Univ. of Arizona  | Bitnet: maier@arizrvax
Tucson, AZ  85721 | Phone: +1 602 621 6893  /  +1 602 621 2617