Talk:Long-distance calling

message: Is there any service that helps a telephone user determine whether a call between two numbers will be long distance?
Also, there is an odd billing custom in the US: local-long-distance.
:For North American numbers, http://www.localcallingguide.com/lca_rcdist.php will do this if you have the area code and first three local digits for each of the two numbers. I don't know of any service that does this worldwide. 66.102.87.61 (talk) 20:10, 15 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Opening heading

message: The section "Categories and charges" mentions local long-distance in the second and third paragraphs. Are we repeating the same concept here, or using one term to describe two different ones?
Replaced external links who contributed the original content for this article.
Please quit removing links from this section. The references are external sources and copywrited. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.24.76.41 (talk • contribs) .
:This user has been blocked from editing as a repeat spammer. Gwernol 11:18, 21 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  local long-distance 

message: I'm waiting for the day when the concept of long distance goes away--with advanced digital codecs, bandwidth can be reduced, and with IP technology, geography really means a lot less than it used to. But I digress.
While attempting to reduce my grandfather's phone bill as much as possible (as he uses his cell for everything except fax calls and the occasional incoming call), I asked the SBC/AT&T representative if we could just not have a long distance plan (as the cheapest offered was still $2 per month for the 10-cent-per-minute OneRate plan). She said that it was possible, but you have to be extremely careful about not making long distance calls, as it can get very expensive. She said that if you don't have a long distance plan, the exchange randomly picks a long distance carrier--or, in her words, the LD carriers grab whichever out-of-plan calls they want and proceed to charge the maximum allowable rate, which is $5 per minute.
This is just the word of one AT&T CSR, so I didn't want to incorporate it into the article yet. Anyone able to confirm this or want to add it in? cluth 06:34, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: If it's true, it's US-specific. In Canada, not setting a default carrier gives the local telco at their worst available rate ($0.34 for the first minute on Bell Canada in the 1990s, for instance) but not a random carrier. 66.102.87.61 (talk) 19:15, 15 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Long distance carriers 

message: Outside of the US, for example, the United Kingdom, the concept of long-distance calls, the language describing long-distance calls, and the technology implementing long-distance calls, does not exist. In the United Kindgom, for example, you can dial a call anywhere in the UK, or anywhere in the world, for a flat rate decided by your local telephone operator and, no matter how many telephone companies the call may have to pass through, you only ever get a single bill.
The globalise tag was added to warn people, particularly non-native English speakers, of the dangers of misinterpretation with regard to world culture when reading this article.
:I've reinstated the  tag. Some of the concepts here, such as the LATA as an arbitrary demarcation between local "Baby Bell" telephone companies and interexchange carriers, are entirely meaningless outside the US as they're regulatory constructs invented as part of the breakup of the Bell System. The term "toll call" is also meaningless in countries where local calls are not free (such as the UK). Trunk call should point here and this article should be rewritten to be about the global concept. Dump the US-specific nonsense into the articles on LATA, AT&T divestiture or similar US regulatory concepts as they're excessive country-specific detail for this page. 66.102.87.61 (talk) 19:11, 15 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Cultural Bias: This Article is completely biased towards the United States

message: Am I missing the value in oldid=576288082's addition of a link to "low cost calling cards" in the external links? Seems like an ad to me. ~E$ 20:37, 11 November 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Spam inclusion? 

message: It would be useful to have an external link to long-distance call statistics by country (external link rather than including in article as these data are ephemeral).  If I find a good, stable site I will add it, but the search so far doesn't look promising. D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 22:08, 2 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Statistics

message: I just added verbiage mentioning the 1968 FCC decision that forced AT&T to allow competition in long distance, starting with MCI Communications.  
If I recall correctly, I read something about this recently in Crawford (2013) Captive Audience (Yale U. Pr.);  unfortunately, I've misplaced my copy of that book.  I believe that was an important step in creating the Internet as it is known today.  DavidMCEddy (talk) 14:47, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Need a section on the history of competition in long distance service 

message: As of 2017-08-30, the section on the United States, included, "The US regulatory structure is non-standard as it splits long-distance calls into multiple, arbitrary categories; an intrastate call is regulated under state law but, once interstate commerce is at stake, federal regulation is applied."  Two concerns:  
* What does "non-standard" mean in this context?  In particular, what "standards" are available that should apply here?  
* The term "arbitrary" seems out of place here.  The U.S. constitution includes many provisions limiting the powers of both the federal and state governments.  This includes the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says that the United States Congress shall have power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." 
I reworded that sentence as follows: "The US regulatory structure splits long-distance calls into multiple categories.  An intrastate call is regulated under state law.  Federal regulation applies to intrastate calls."
I also deleted "arbitrary" from the next sentence:  "The local access and transport area or LATA, another arbitrary US regulatory construct, ... ."  The term "arbitrary" in this context seems at best out of place and inappropriate.  I replaced that phrase with just "concept".  DavidMCEddy (talk) 14:27, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  POV change 

message: I have just listened to the entire episode that this sound file comes from, the episode itself captured from a phonograph recording.  It is entitled "The Big Missing", ep 8 of the first season, air date 28 July 1949, listed at https://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/Dragnet.php. GBC (talk) 21:49, 28 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dragnet sound file