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Message Digest Volume 28 : Issue 10 : "text" Format Messages in this Issue: Re: termination fees, Any user reviews of the Magic Jack? Trying to keep pace with technology Re: Payphone Surcharge ====== 27 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 Jan 2009 16:04:29 -0000 From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Cc: redacted@invalid.telecom-digest.org Subject: Re: termination fees, Any user reviews of the Magic Jack? Message-ID: <20090110160429.18783.qmail@simone.iecc.com> >My son regularly uses a pay phone to call me from his school, using >prepaid phone cards. I have yet to find one that doesn't add a >surcharge - as much as 75 cents in one case - for any pay phone call, In the US, the payphone provider gets paid something like 50 cents for every 800 call, so I'm not surprised. I have a card with no surcharge, but you have to buy it in Canada. If you're ever in the frozen north, drop by a Loblaws (also known as Canadian Superstore and some other things) and get a Presidents Choice calling card. It's C$.04 per minute. Once you have one you can recharge it from anywhere over the net. If he has access to a phone that can make local calls, you might look for a local access phone card, since those are cheaper and don't have a payphone surcharge. R's, John ***** Moderator's Note ***** I invite responses from Canadian readers who are interested in starting a cottage industry. I'll be your first customer. My son's school insists that all calls be made on the payphone, and when I offered to install a private line for his use, they said they were going to set one up for all the students to use "soon", but somehow that hasn't happened. I suspect they're too busy counting the receipts from their pay phone business. Bill Horne Temporary Moderator ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 14:57:28 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Trying to keep pace with technology Message-ID: <p062408a3c58ea761f445@[10.0.1.6]> Trying to keep pace with technology By John Hilliard Fri Jan 09, 2009, 04:22 PM EST FRAMINGHAM - Do you think teachers still look for kids passing paper notes in class? How very, very 20th century of you. Now messages - along with photos and other media - are traded with cell phones that can make calls, send text messages, take photos and surf the Web. Eagle-eyed teachers not only have to make sure students pay attention and follow the rules, but now they must stay up to date on the latest Web and cell phone gear. How good are some teens at this stuff? The best can type a message on a cell phone while the device is hidden under clothing, said Framingham High School's principal, Michael Welch. His school doesn't outright ban the devices, but wants them out of sight and out of mind for the school day. ... < href="http://www.wickedlocal.com/framingham/news/x743978279/Trying-to-keep-pace-with-technology">http://www.wickedlocal.com/framingham/news/x743978279/Trying-to-keep-pace-with-technology ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:15:00 -0500 From: Randall <rvh40@insightbb.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Payphone Surcharge Message-ID: <FA515502-97E3-4EE0-ADD4-E3CC40488AA5@insightbb.com> > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > My son regularly uses a pay phone to call me from his school, using > prepaid phone cards. I have yet to find one that doesn't add a > surcharge - as much as 75 cents in one case - for any pay phone call, > so keep in mind that most advertised prices assume you're calling from > a non-public phone. When ATT was split up and COCOTs were allowed into the mix, someone noticed that his payphones were being used by people to make "toll- free" calls and he wasn't getting paid for it, though the owner of the "toll free" number was. The FCC imposed a per-call "dial-around compensation" surcharge to be added to the cost of those calls; the "toll free" carrier charges it to the line owner for every call which originates from a payphone -- and the carrier traditionally cheats the COCOT owner out of it. Most COCOT owners are small businesses with only a few phones, and it's just not worth the trouble for them to chase a dollar or two a month per phone. Enter groups like the APCC, which is an umbrella group that represents small payphone owners to even the scales a bit. They've been somewhat successful at recovering dial-around compensation for COCOT owners: http://tinyurl.com/8bvhpk ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. The Telecom Digest is currently being moderated by Bill Horne while Pat Townson recovers from a stroke. Contact information: Bill Horne Telecom Digest 43 Deerfield Road Sharon MA 02067-2301 781-784-7287 bill at horne dot net Subscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=subscribe telecom Unsubscribe: mailto:telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=unsubscribe telecom This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest Copyright (C) 2008 TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of The Telecom digest (3 messages) ******************************