>>I have a GTE Residential ISDN line in California. My understanding is that
>>voice calls are unmeterred and do not carry a per minute charge for local
>>calls.
and Terry added:
>My customer has tried calling GTE. When they finally spoke with someone,
>GTE's response was that they have "smart" equipment that can sense if a
>voice initiated call is a actually a data call placed as a voice call. I'm
>not sure what a good response to this is.
My response would be to demand instant refunds and
adjustments when each and every bill is received, quoting
their own sales literature, web sites, whatever.
I would also test the heck out of the situation, trying
all possible permutations.
As far as testing goes:
a) What happens when an analog modem is used
on the "phone line" of the ISDN line?
a1) What happens when calling a random
number (another user who can set up
his modem to "answer")?
a2) What happens when the customer is
calling one of your PRIs?
b) What happens when a fax machine is used
on the "phone line" of the ISDN line?
b1) See (a1) and (a2) above. Even though
it will not "work" when calling you
PRIs, try the same thing, just to log
a call.
c) What happens when the ISDN modem in question
places a DOV call to another number (perhaps
that of a another ISDN user)? Perhaps the
"special equipment" is a simple correlation
between (ISP) PRIs known to GTE and the called
number. Such a "billing hack" might be the
sole "special equipment" used to "detect"
such calls.
d) What happens when a 2 minute call is placed
using DOV? What happens when a 30 second call
is placed using DOV?
e) What happens when placing a DOV call to an
out-of-area PRI, not within the service area
of the telco in question?
f) If GTE is in the ISP business themselves,
what happens when the user calls THEIR
PRI? Do they even support DOV?
g) What happens if the user uses his phone
to place an ISDN voice call to your PRI?
All of the above questions require a notebook and
careful attention to the time each call was placed,
since one wants to compare actions to bills. The
bad news is that the test results will take a month
to come back.
The holy grail of "catching" people who use DOV has been
the subject of much discussion within all the telcos. I know,
because our main revenues are gained from the sale of massive
databases that track and control central office equipment,
provisioning and so on. If there were such equipment, it would
be big news. To my knowledge, there is no such equipment. If
ANY of the major telcos heard even a whisper of such equipment,
a request would be made to add a new data table to the database
schemas to track, control, and assign such equipment.
If the "catching" were done at the switch level, the software
build (from AT&T, NT, whoever) would be clearly documented
to describe the "enhanced feature". No such doc has crossed
our desks, and we keep a very complete set of 3-ring-binders.
Therefore, I suspect either:
a) The Northern Telecom DMS100 "bug" mentioned
earlier in this thread.
b) A billing hack, where calls made to specific
numbers (known ISPs) are flagged as data calls
based upon dialed number data.
If GTE is doing a "billing hack", AND if GTE is also in the ISP
business, I would offer the opinion that the next step would be
formal complaint to both the FTC and the local utility regulators
on one or more of the following grounds:
- Deceptive sales practices to end-users
regarding the definition of a "voice" call,
and the actual billing versus the definition.
- Restraint of trade (against [other] ISPs)
- Violation of published tariff (the call is
clearly a voice-type call)
- RICO (since there is clearly a pattern of
ongoing criminal activity)
This could be a fun little battle if you are willing to test
all possible variations to expose any possible connection
between the "Called Number" and the (ahem) "special equipment".
We are not so poor to be forced to trash Earth, nor rich enough to afford to.
james fischer jfischer@supercollider.com
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