OT: What happens after ditching long distance?

[Joerg]

Ok, guys, got another AT&T bill and I just had it. Charged a minimum fee
for under-usage, plus this, that and the other "recovery fee". IOW
almost $20 for long distance while no long distance calls where made.
None! Let's see, how much is that per minute? $20 divided by zero ...

Not much money but this stinks. We use 1019898 + number anyhow, gets 2c
to many EU countries and so on. No idea whether it'll last but I bet if
not there will be others.

So, what happens after I cancel all long distance service? What if a
client accidentally picks up the phone and dials out to New Jersey or to
Asia? Local long distance? Can that result in a humongous bill or will
the phone just refuse to dial out?

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Ok, guys, got another AT&T bill and I just had it. Charged a minimum fee
for under-usage, plus this, that and the other "recovery fee". IOW
almost $20 for long distance while no long distance calls where made.
None! Let's see, how much is that per minute? $20 divided by zero ...

Not much money but this stinks. We use 1019898 + number anyhow, gets 2c
to many EU countries and so on. No idea whether it'll last but I bet if
not there will be others.

So, what happens after I cancel all long distance service? What if a
client accidentally picks up the phone and dials out to New Jersey or to
Asia? Local long distance? Can that result in a humongous bill or will
the phone just refuse to dial out?

I make most of my calls using Skype these days.

--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party
http://www.onetribe.me.uk/wordpress/?cat=5 - Our podcasts on weird stuff

 

[mpm]

Ok, guys, got another AT&T bill and I just had it. Charged a minimum fee
for under-usage, plus this, that and the other "recovery fee". IOW
almost $20 for long distance while no long distance calls where made.
None! Let's see, how much is that per minute? $20 divided by zero ...

Not much money but this stinks. We use 1019898 + number anyhow, gets 2c
to many EU countries and so on. No idea whether it'll last but I bet if
not there will be others.

So, what happens after I cancel all long distance service? What if a
client accidentally picks up the phone and dials out to New Jersey or to
Asia? Local long distance? Can that result in a humongous bill or will
the phone just refuse to dial out?

Well, you could see this coming.
Personally, I try all avenues to avoid having anything in my life
metered.
Cell phone minutes, time clocks, overdue library books, you name it.

Of course, in today's world is not that easy to avoid.
My guess is you signed up for a plan that anticipated use, and then
you didn't use.
Take solace in the knowledge that some bean-counter curve-fitted that
behavior...

 

[T]

Ok, guys, got another AT&T bill and I just had it. Charged a minimum fee
for under-usage, plus this, that and the other "recovery fee". IOW
almost $20 for long distance while no long distance calls where made.
None! Let's see, how much is that per minute? $20 divided by zero ...

Not much money but this stinks. We use 1019898 + number anyhow, gets 2c
to many EU countries and so on. No idea whether it'll last but I bet if
not there will be others.

So, what happens after I cancel all long distance service? What if a
client accidentally picks up the phone and dials out to New Jersey or to
Asia? Local long distance? Can that result in a humongous bill or will
the phone just refuse to dial out?

Nah, it'll just re-order on you.

I note you're using PacBell, can you just get net service from them? And
then hang a Vonage box on it. I love my Vonage service, I get a whole
host of features that I don't really use except for CLID, Call Wait,
Voice Mail, DND and Return-Call.

Their online activity log is fantastic and they also include free access
to France, Italy, England, Ireland, and Spain. Other countries like
Israel, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, Argentina, Australia and
China are a penny a minute.

Germany is 4 cents a minute.

My Vonage Unlimited account costs about $31 a month once all the fees
and taxes are added in which is still a bargain compared to anything
Verizon or Cox could offer me.

If you do decide to go the Vonage route email me.

 

[Joerg]

Well, you could see this coming.
Personally, I try all avenues to avoid having anything in my life
metered.
Cell phone minutes, time clocks, overdue library books, you name it.

Of course, in today's world is not that easy to avoid.
My guess is you signed up for a plan that anticipated use, and then
you didn't use.
Take solace in the knowledge that some bean-counter curve-fitted that
behavior...

That would be ok but when I signed up I explicitly asked whether there
was a min charge. Because I didn't want there to be one. "No, there
isn't". Got a record about that here. Today Mr.Smartguy from customer
service told me that this old plan was grandfathered in and a min charge
was introduced and that customers were notified. Which we were not. Ok,
if I have time I'll file with CPUC now and get it reversed. Not much
money but it's about the principle.

 

[Joerg]

How much of that is Californication taxes?

About half.

I have AT&T and average about $5-$6/month.

Only local? Even that's a lot more here.

I talk to Australia almost daily... ZERO cost ;-)

Well, yeah, on Skype. I like a real phone an 2c to Europe via a third
party ain't that bad.

 

[mpm]

I talk to Australia almost daily... ZERO cost ;-)

That reminds me...
Does anybody know if a Netopia Cayman 3346 router has a QOS port?
What are you using Jim? Are you happy with it?

Have cablemodem at the house and looking to add one of these VoIP
lines.
Have Sunrocket now (long story), but not terribly happy with the
quality.
It could be the router though (on that one, it's just a standard 4-
port Linksys BEFSR41 V2)

-mpm

 

[mpm]

On Aug 5, 7:59�pm, Joerg <[email protected]>
wrote:


I had a similar experience with AT&T changing plans on me a long time
ago.
They had changed something and I ended up paying about $400 more than
I should have over the course of about a year. They would only credit
me the last 3 months.

So, (since I often do consulting work for them), I just tacked on what
they owed me.
Two can play that game.

-mpm

 

[Joerg]

Nah, it'll just re-order on you.

What? Can they really do that?

I note you're using PacBell, can you just get net service from them? And
then hang a Vonage box on it. I love my Vonage service, I get a whole
host of features that I don't really use except for CLID, Call Wait,
Voice Mail, DND and Return-Call.

I don't like VoIP much. A vendor of a client has that and sometimes I
have a real hard time understanding.

Their online activity log is fantastic and they also include free access
to France, Italy, England, Ireland, and Spain. Other countries like
Israel, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, Argentina, Australia and
China are a penny a minute.

Germany is 4 cents a minute.

I get 2c/min to Germany

My Vonage Unlimited account costs about $31 a month once all the fees
and taxes are added in which is still a bargain compared to anything
Verizon or Cox could offer me.

If you do decide to go the Vonage route email me.

Well, if the LD goes away AT&T will be under $20 with all the taxes and
the 3rd party minute fees miniscule. Pretty much 2c/min for most places
unless you call some tiny island way out there.

 

[Martin Riddle]

I talk to Australia almost daily... ZERO cost ;-)

That reminds me...
Does anybody know if a Netopia Cayman 3346 router has a QOS port?
What are you using Jim? Are you happy with it?

Have cablemodem at the house and looking to add one of these VoIP
lines.
Have Sunrocket now (long story), but not terribly happy with the
quality.
It could be the router though (on that one, it's just a standard 4-
port Linksys BEFSR41 V2)

-mpm

www.t-mobileathome.com VOIP looks interesting. $10 a month.

Cheers

 

[Joerg]

What do you mean "local". It's long distance... not the
multi-area-code Californicated crap. We have 4 area codes in the
Phoenix metro area, but they're free of charge, no "1" required.

That's very different out here. IIRC only a 12-mile radius is free, give
or take. Our area code 530 spreads much wider plus some numbers are
assigned to Davis, clear across on the other side of Sacramento and its
916 area code. That and much of our area will be toll calls.

[...]

 

[Carl Ijames]

I make about 1 ld call a month so last year when all the ld carriers
went to a $2-4 minimum charge per month I dropped ATT ld on my land
line. I call on my cell and if the connection is bad I just ask them to
call me back (or I use a prepaid ld card) on the land line. On the land
line if you dial any non-toll-free ld numbers you just get a recorded
message and the call does not go through (and you are not charged).
Toll free numbers work like they used to.

 

[David Lesher]

If you cancel, there's no account to run up.

I use USAdatanet.com service; no min, no monthly charge. It's <5c/min,
which sounds high; but I use $25 per year so the lack of fixed charges is
crucial.

You call a local # [I use a speed dialer.] and then your #.

 

[Joerg]

I make about 1 ld call a month so last year when all the ld carriers
went to a $2-4 minimum charge per month I dropped ATT ld on my land
line. I call on my cell and if the connection is bad I just ask them to
call me back (or I use a prepaid ld card) on the land line. On the land
line if you dial any non-toll-free ld numbers you just get a recorded
message and the call does not go through (and you are not charged).
Toll free numbers work like they used to.

Does the same recorded message come up for local long distance? If not,
did they jack up your LLD rate? Thing is in our area it's nearly
impossible to decipher from a phone number whether this will be a LLD or
local call.

 

[Joerg]

If you cancel, there's no account to run up.

I use USAdatanet.com service; no min, no monthly charge. It's <5c/min,
which sounds high; but I use $25 per year so the lack of fixed charges is
crucial.

You call a local # [I use a speed dialer.] and then your #.

We use 1019898, it's 10c for the first minute to connect, then 2c or so
to many places in Europe. No monthly charge. Intra-US it's roughly the
same AFAIK but I don't know because there we use CostCo phone cards.
Sprint, Verizon, whatever is the best deal.

The audio quality is excellent, definitely not VoIP. I wonder how they
do that for 2c/min. Sometimes they have specials to Southern Europe for
0.5c/min. Blows me away.

 

[Joerg]

Depending on your "provider", "local long distance" may be as little
as 15 miles or as much as 30 miles (roughly).

More like 12 miles here :-(

Question is: Do those minute rates remain the same after dropping LD?

Opting out of long distance service will save the charges attached to
what you have now; true long distance call attempts will result in a
pre-recorded message noting that service is not available (do not
remember the wording).
Replace that with a pre-paid calling card similar to the MCI card
that Costco / Sams' Club has sold - rate is under 3 cents per minute and
no extra BS charges. Rechargeable over phone via credit card.
Note "one cent" and similar cards charge roughly 50 cents to *place*
the call - which means one MUST make *ONE* call for the maximum time to
get close to the (falsely) advertised rates.
Those "gotchas" are -*never* disclosed.

They are usually disclosed but in the smallest and thinnest fonts they
can get away with. Like those TV ads that end with a super fast blur
talker "Special restrictions apply ... bla bla blubb wheeeeee brumble
bla blubb".

 

[T]

What? Can they really do that?

Yes they can. They can just set the COS on the line to no LD/PIC access.
It'll either jump to reorder or play a message that LD access on the
line is disabled, to dial 101+ or what have you.

I don't like VoIP much. A vendor of a client has that and sometimes I
have a real hard time understanding.



I get 2c/min to Germany

Interesting. That's going over a VoIP gateway somewhere I'm sure. Vonage
also has other plans that cover more of Europe for a relatively small
fee per month of unlimited usage.

I completely forgot about that.

 

[T]

The usual problem is lack of QoS in both their and *YOUR* router. Both
have to have QoS to give VoIP packet priority over the other traffic.
Otherwise, the audio will sound like gargling ball bearings.

And the Vonage devices do enforce QOS. I've got a Linksys RT31P2 and I
can tell it how much bandwidth I want for the VoIP connection. I run
mine at the full 90kbps and have absolutely fantastic quality on the
connection. No echo, no compandored sideband sound, it's just like a
regular telephone line.

 

[T]

What do you mean "local". It's long distance... not the
multi-area-code Californicated crap. We have 4 area codes in the
Phoenix metro area, but they're free of charge, no "1" required.

That's very different out here. IIRC only a 12-mile radius is free, give
or take. Our area code 530 spreads much wider plus some numbers are
assigned to Davis, clear across on the other side of Sacramento and its
916 area code. That and much of our area will be toll calls.

[...]

That's the thing I love about VoIP. I don't have to worry about what is
toll and what isn't. Just dial and talk.

 

[Joerg]

"Local long distance" is a part of the local service you pay for in
thebase rate, and you cannot "opt out" of that unless you ditch a local
phoneline service.

Ah, ok, thanks. I guess that would also mean they can't sock it to me
just because I drop their LD.