THANKS!
********************************************************************Lisa Hancock wrote:
Toll coin calls never had their coins counted in the central office. The operator handled them for a long time, until AT&T and the locals began to implement ACTS, Automated Coin Toll Service, for customer dialed 1+ coin calls, within the operator service switch, i.e., the TSPS (Traffic Service Position System), or TOPS (Traffic Operator Position Service), or OSPS (Operator Service Position System).
AT&T seems to have been the ONLY inter-LATA coin toll carrier in the US, with the few exceptions of "nearby" or "corridor" inter-LATA coin toll calls, such as NYC with northeastern NJ, southwestern NJ with southeastern PA, and some other short-haul inter-LATA arrangements which had received special waivers from the DOJ and FCC, those corridor type inter-LATA 1+ coin calls could probably also be handled by the local telco or AT&T, depending on whether or not you dialed the right 101XXXX prefix first.
But AT&T Long Distance discontinued ALL 1+ and 011+ coin toll service back in 2002/03. They reconfigured the trunk groups from the local central offices with their twenty or so regional OSPS switches that handle Operator and Card services, so that traditional AT&T handled
1+ coin toll service was discontinued. The FCC apparantly approved AT&T's withdrawal from this back in 2001. AT&T's withdrawal from traditional 1+ coin also eliminated their traditional provision of coin "person" service dialed as 0+, and 01+ for international coin person calling.Where traditional central office controlled coin phones are still in use by the ILECs, local coin calls are still handled by the local central office, and 1+ intra-LATA coin toll, as well as any possible grandfathered corridor inter-LATA 1+ coin calls, are handled by the ILEC's TOPS switches. Intra-LATA coin person calls would also still be possible as 0+ via the ILEC's TOPS.
But private "COCOT" payphones with internal "smart" chips began to appear during the 1980s and have taken over. Several of us (myself, Joseph Singer, Danny Burstein) have already stated that even most of the ILECs have been reconfiguring their payphones so that the central office and the Operator TOPS no longer handle local or 1+ intra-LATA coin calls, but rather new internal "smart chips" will handle this in the same manner that a private "COCOT" payphone does.
If an ILEC wants to provide "universal" 1+ coin service, both local, intra-LATA, inter-LATA, and even possibly international, at least for inter-LATA, they have to do it via "smart chips". It really doesn't matter who the LD carrier is, since all the LD carrier is doing is handling a "standard 1+ call" on behalf of the ILEC's line. The "smart chips" in the phone will quote/count/collect/etc. the coins, regardless of who the LD carrier might happen to be.
That same ILEC might have "hybrid" phones, where intra-LATA 1+ coin toll is still handled in the "traditional" sense, routing to their TOPS for 1+ coin treatment; and basic local coin calls are handled in the local central office.
OR the ILEC might have chosen to COMPLETELY "COCOT-ize" their payphones for ALL coin calls, local, zoned, 1+ intra-LATA, 1+ inter-LATA, etc., maybe even 011+ international.
OR ... the ILEC could completely WITHDRAW from owning and providing payphone service altogather, as many rural and small town local telcos have been doing since the mid-1990s, and even BellSouth completely withdrew from payphone service by 2003/04. BellSouth began to totally "COCOT-ize" their payphones starting in the mid-1990s. When the ILEC no longer provides payphone services, then ALL payphones are truly COCOTs, in that ALL of them are PRIVATELY owned. But even when those ILECs were providing payphones in the last several years, it was no different in overall operation than the truly privately owned payphones since all of them had internal "smart chips".
Like it or not, the private "COCOT" payphone has taken over, either as a truly privately owned payphone, or else as an ILEC (telco) owned payphone but with COCOT-like "smart chips" inside of the phone, without ANY telephone network switching element having control over the coi, quoting/counting/collecting/returning/etc. Whatsoever. anymore.
I doubt that you will be able to determine who the carrier is for 1+ coin. Since the phone isn't your own, you are free to use it at the rates posted or quoted, if depositing coins, or else use your calling card or other method of payment (collect, third party, etc), ideally by dialing a toll-free 800/888/877/866 number to access the operator or card provider of your choice. Don't ever dial 0- or 0+ from a payphone and expect to get AT&T or the ILEC operator or service anymore, even if the payphone is AT&T or ILEC branded, or displays such as the '0' carrier on the instruction card. If making a calling card type call from a payphone, use the toll-free 800 type number displayed on your card.
And if you think that you might find who the inter-LATA 1+ carrier is by dialing 1-700-555-4141, most payhones do NOT allow that to be dialed. The internal "smart chips" don't have the 700 area code programmed in as a valid area code.
Things have been changing since 1984 and even before then too. I'm not happy with the direction of some things in telecom, especially with payphones. But I almost exclusively use my cellphone, rarely even using my residential landline phone anymore, even though I still subscribe to a traditional residential landline phone.