Re: NYC Phone Rates, was: Sid Ceasar and Phones in Comedy

snipped-for-privacy@XmasNYC.>> Danny Burste>>> >>> Bit by bit the 75 message unit allowance got cut down, so nowadays

>>> there's nothing there there. On the slight plus side back in the >>> 1970s the "local area" for untimed calls expanded to the entire >>> city. >> Also cut out is the discount for LOCAL calls made in evening and night >> altho Verizon kept itemizing how many were made eve and night. > IIRC, more distant Message Unit calls in NYC were timed. Immediate > local calls were untimed, but more distant calls had a charge, such as > one unit for every two minutes and the even further calls one unit for > every minute. There was a complex chart in the phone book that > explained it all. > Philadelphia used and continues to use a similar system to this day. > It's called "measured service now" but the principles are the same--an > non-itemized aggregate of cost for intermediate local calls in the > "Metropolitan Calling Area". In contrast to the above, in more recent > years discounts are given for night/weekend calls, in the past there > were no discounts for offpeak calling. Also, in more recent years > boundaries were liberalized and basically the charges declined.

I wonder how VoIP and unlimited local/ld is impacting measured service. Put it this way, a measured service line in RI would cost about $25 a month. For that much I use Vonage and get unlimited.

Based on the Bell System history, many big cities had measured > service. Adding meters to each line for panel switching did not seem > to be a big deal; indeed, I think it was part of the plan. I don't > think adding meters to SxS was that hard either as it was done in the > 1940s for Los Angeles. > Note that cities had fairly large calling areas and the opportunity to > reach literally millions of people on a local call. In contrast, > small towns had a much smaller calling area before going toll and far > fewer people to reach. So you in a small town could call your next > door neigbhor for free, but your cousin in the next town was a toll > call. > For example, the regional high school serving my area covers a fairly > large geographic area. End to end is a toll call, in the middle are > message unit calls, and local calls within narrow spots. You can see > the contrast in calling options and fees for a kid in a city high > school (measured, but cheap) and a suburban kid (either free or toll). > Remember too the Brady Bunch episode discussed here where too many > calls were being made and the parents clamped down on the kids. > Obviously they had measured service. (In a modern house with six kids > with three adults. Hmm, yeah right. Geez, even in those days > families like that were putting in second lines for the kids to use; > the phoneco even had combo packages.)

I've never had a measured service line. Just wasn't worth it to me, particularly in the early 80's doing BBS testing where you might make

12 calls a day.
Reply to
Tony P.
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