Sounds like when I lived and worked in Lausanne , Switzerland. PTT bills for the month were very expense. Felt like you had to mortgage a house to pay for it. It was the International calls that were expense.
On Sat, Feb 29, 2020 at 8:39 PM Wayne Bickerdike <[email protected]> wrote: > Gil, > > I was working in Indonesia and the only way to call home was from the > Wartel (Warung Telekomunikasi) ie Phone shop. > > They allocate a phone booth and you give them the number to dial. It has an > electronic display showing the rolling cost. It was around $5 a minute back > in 1993. My boss gave me a Telstra phone card and the 1800 number overseas > needed an account number which was # delimited followed by a # delimited > pin number. That's why the sneaky mofos disabled the # key, however, tone > diallers still worked. > > > > On Sun, Mar 1, 2020 at 8:27 AM Paul Gilmartin < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > On Sun, 1 Mar 2020 08:00:44 +1100, Wayne Bickerdike wrote: > > >... > > >I have had to resort to tone dialers in Indonesia to use a phone > > >card because they disable the # key . Their phone systems were largely > > >owned by kleptocrats who realised that phone cards would bypass their > > >exorbitant phone call charges. > > > > > In the U.S. there existed services one could call via a (free) 800 > > number (no #, IIRC); enter a card number, then target number > > to bypass exorbitant AT&T charges. AT&T retaliated by reversing > > DC polarity after initial connection so tone generator wouldn't > > work. FCC prohibited disabling those third party services. AT&T > > acquiesced by agreeing to install bridge rectifiers on request, > > *only* in Western Electric (AT&T partner) phones. Customers with > > third-party hardware were left to seek relief from their vendors. > > Kleptocrats. Think of 1959 consent decree. > > > > -- gil > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > > > -- > Wayne V. Bickerdike > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- *IDMWORKS * Scott Ford z/OS Dev. “By elevating a friend or Collegue you elevate yourself, by demeaning a friend or collegue you demean yourself” www.idmworks.com [email protected] Blog: www.idmworks.com/blog *The information contained in this email message and any attachment may be privileged, confidential, proprietary or otherwise protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying or use of this message and any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message and permanently delete it from your computer and destroy any printout thereof.* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
