In article <telecom24.218.5@telecom-digest.org>,
<hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
> In another thread Pat mentioned FX lines. As mentioned, these were
> used to save on long distance changes -- customers would make a local
> call to a distant business and the business could call its customers
> for the cost of a local call. This service was not cheap.
> At a resort I visited that had FX lines to a city 75 miles away, the
> switchboard had special heavy cord pairs. Extensions authorized for
> FX had a second jack underneath in which the heavy cord was inserted.
> I heard FX lines used higher voltage thus the heavy cords. I don't
> know what kind of special wiring, if any, was in the telephone sets.
> I would guess WATS and long distance packages has made most FX lines
> obsolete.
The proverbial "yes and no".
I seriously looked at FX for my residence a couple of times within the
last 10 years or so.
The install cost was medium monumental -- hundreds of dollars -- but
the monthly recurring was a pittance -- under $2, as I recall. The
monthly was that cheap because it wasn't very far -- this was for FX
from the next exchange distant. It was a straight per-mile thing, and
the 'worst case' distance was under 5 miles (I had them do numbers to
three nearby COs, I knew the more distant one had the right kind of
gear, wasn't sure what the others had, or how the distance stacked
up.) I was looking at ISDN, and wanted features that were only
available from certain kinds of switch. Unfortunately the one in 'my'
C.O. did -not- support the particular features I wanted. Hence the FX
investigation.
The poor telco rep -- who had apparently never heard of such a thing
-- had to do a _lot_ of digging, get a special services quote on the
install costs, etc. and then was utterly _amazed_ at how low the
monthly cost was. (I was, too!)
The idea of _ISDN_ FX took a lot of the engineering people somewhat by
surprise, or so I heard, but it _was_ in the tariffs.
> There was toll free before 800 numbers but it was manual
> and a local number added a comfort factor. Obviously today a
> business's 800 number is more convenient for anyone. Further,
> businesses have outward long distance packages so the cost of paying
> for an FX trunk (that only worked in a specific city) couldn't be
> justified.
"In-state" long distance can still be obnoxiously priced. Including
in-state 800 service.
I know of at least one manufacturing company -- located jut outside of
a fairly _small_ town, that maintains a tie-line to the "big city"
circa 50 miles away. They have a national 800 number, too. but
there's enough call-volume to the city to justify the ongoing cost of
the dedicated line. Probably not enough to justify *installing* it,
if they had to do it today, but enough to _keep_ it, since the install
is a 'sunk cost' -- long sunk, probably 50 years, now.
I *really* confused their switchboard one day, when I called "out of
the blue" to request a quote on an order. I was calling from two
states away, and the call came in on their city tie-line, *not* their
800 number. For which there was a _simple_ explanation, I had family
in the city, had called _them_ to get a referral, _and_ the phone
number. Oddly enough, the 800 number was _not_ listed in the local
phone book _there_. Since my then place-of-work had flat-rate
(unmetered) _outgoing_ Long Distance, I didn't bother to check for any
other numbers.
After I got a salesman, that conversation got sort-of funny. He was
reluctant to quote on the order -- stated that he 'almost surely'
would not be competitive, "particularly with the cost of shipping
figured in", with suppliers around Chicago, where I was. As it turned
out, _including_ shipping, his price was almost 1/3 *under* the best
price I got locally. My order was comparatively small for a
manufacturer, low 4 figures. But, as it turned out, they got a *LOT*
of other business from the Chicago area as a result of my purchase --
some _big_ users heard about the pricing I got, and were placing
rail-car size orders. For several years they even had a sales office
here.
> But there is another type of "FX" service that seems not to have gone
> away even though the need has. Philadelphia has a local city zone and
> message units for more distant suburban calls. Many suburban
> businesses had a city phone number for the same reason companies had
> FX lines. Even some suburban homeowners who made a lot of city calls
> had a second line with a city number. AFAIK, many suburban businesses
> still maintain their existing city phone numbers even though today the
> need isn't as much.
> (The following is the economic analyis for those interested).
> The message unit charge has been 7c for at least the last 40 years.
> Now 7c 40 years ago was like 50c today and say a monthly usage of 100
> units comes to some serious money in today's terms (equivalent of $50)
> while today it's $7 which isn't a big deal. Further, Verizon has
> increased local calling area sizes and reduced zone charges. My guess
> is today it probably costs a business far more to maintain the city
> line than whatever they save in message units, and customers don't
> give making a suburban call a second thought today.
> In looking through the yellow pages I noticed many businesses had
> multiple numbers. However, for some time Verizon offers remote
>forwarding -- that is you get a local number but it really isn't a
> line -- it just forwards calls to your actual number. That's more to
> imply a business has a local presence than to save customers toll
> charges.
Remote forwarding is relatively *expensive* -- you pay a 'message units'
charge for every call. Depending on what the monthly is for for the
FX pair, it can be a _lot_ cheaper.
Making a WAG about the monthly for an across-town like that FX,
The break-even point could easily be only 6-8 calls a day.
> I guess that businesses maintaining a distant line never gave it any
> thought and just pay for it month after month.
"Keeping" it can be relatively inexpensive. Putting it in, in the first
place was where the big expense was.
Robert Bonomi (bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com)