Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 14:35:35 GMT
From: gg@jet.uk (Gordon Grant)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: 700 Numbers From Overseas
Organization: Joint European Torus
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 835, Message 6 of 11

In an article by Holger Reusch (Dipl. Gerhard + Joe) our esteemed
Moderator notes:

> [Moderator's Note: Cynics in Europe can call it whatever they like; I
> read some papers from the UK and other places in Europe which carry
> advertisements for companies in Europe. *They* do the same thing; I
> have seen their ads with only '0800' numbers and the like. Shall I
> now devote several issues of this Digest to complain about 'European 
> centrism' because I can't call them on their nickle?  Your complaint
> should be directed to companies which advertise in media read around
> the world while failing to include telephone numbers which can be
> dialed internationally. Maybe a lot of those companies simply are not
> soliciting business from other countries for reasons of their own,
> possibly involving customs taxes, copyright problems, etc.  Or maybe
> their advertising copy writers are simply stupid. In either case, why
> blame telco for omissions by merchants in their advertising?   PAT]

Come off it Pat.  0800 and <insert code used in your country> numbers
mixes several issues in one big cocktail that is not to everyone's
taste.  Telcos all over world should be able to offer better more
flexible products to their customers.

An 0800 number combines:

A non-geographical based number where the call can be automatically
routed to regional centre based on the location of the caller.

A fine service but I don't see why the customer should not define
default destination for calls from areas or countries without a region
centre.

An incoming call barring service, where the recipient declines calls
 from certains numbers or groups of numbers. Again a useful service we
all expect from a telco.

Defines a "non-standard" payment method, in this case all who can
connect to the number get the call paid for by the recipient.

Such a rigid product may have been acceptable twenty years ago, but
today it seems to retained more for the benefit of the telco than
either their customers or service user.

Why are these service "the same the whole world over"?  Is it
international agreement or disagreement?


gg@jet.uk                Gordon Grant             Jet Abingdon OX14 3EA UK
Fidonet: (2:253/170)     Voice +44 235 464792     Fax +44 235 464404       


[Moderator's Note: Everything you described above is available in the
USA on 800 numbers. And there are international 800 numbers; that is,
800 numbers for people in the USA to use which terminate in Europe or
some other international point. Likewise, there are 0800 (or other
code per country) which in fact terminate in the USA. A business in
the USA which desires to have reverse-charge calls to it from an
international point can quite easily ask AT&T to arrange it for them
with the telecom administration in the desired country. A business in
London which solicits customers from the USA need only ask British
Telecom to set it up with AT&T; then presently an 800 number in the
USA on a certain prefix which is intended for such international
arrangements will be up and connected for them. 

The simple fact is that many/most(?) businesses in the USA --
particularly in areas of high tech -- are not in a position to deal
directly with customers in other countries due to taxes, customs
regulations, restrictive laws pertaining to the export of certain
technology, etc. You do not do any favors for anyone by rigging up a
call into a gateway in the USA which then goes outbound to someone's
800 number here. You force them to pay for a call they otherwise would
not pay for (had it been dialed in a straight-forward way from the
other country). On the other hand, if a business in the USA has an
0800 (or whatever) number in another country, by all means use it if
you wish ... they *want* you to call them.  PAT]