UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1993 16:14:11 -0500
From: TELECOM Moderator
Telepassport is now available and open for business! Hereinafter in this
message I shall refer to it as TP. TP is an international long distance
carrier. The idea behind TP is to route international calls all over the
world via the United States, allowing callers to access state of the art
telecommunications technology, the best line clarity, and the lowest
rates in the world.
TP capitalizes on the rate differential between the USA and other
countries using a technique known as 're-origination'. The switch takes
calls from customers anywhere in the world, reverses the call so it is
billed as USA originated, and provides USA dialtone so the customer can
complete the connection to any other country in the world.
The cost savings to the customer could be up to fifty percent, depending
on a few factors.
For example, a five minute call from Italy to the USA handled and billed
by the PTT would cost $11.40. Using TP, the cost for the same call would
be $6.84. A five minute call from Brazil to the United Kingdom costs
$18.95 through the Brazilian PTT, but only $10.84 using TP.
Legal Status:
=============
TP is available in virtually every country in the world as a Value Added
Service. Although in some countries the PTT may not welcome the
competition, they are bound by international telecommunication treaties
to allow us to operate. In addition, TP is required to compensate the
PTTs as part of an international settlements process for carrying our
calls in and out of their country.
Where telecommunications monopolies are in effect, they specifically
prohibit competition by disallowing the installation or use of
facilities in the territory controlled by the monopoly. TP requires no
installation or equipment of any kind in various countries except the
telephone instrument itself. It is an American service and its customers
are billed in the United States, with the US Dollar the method of
payment.
In the United States, AT&T has raised objections when certain companies
it suspected were marketing a callback system filed for FCC
authorization to carry international traffic. In their objections they
complained that callback systems were illegally using carriers'
facilities to signal for the callback and thereby avoiding payment of
the tariffed rates for useage.
In fact, the tariffs are specifically set not to charge for uncompleted
calls so there is no avoidance of payment. AT&T's own answering machine
product, 'The Toll Saver' is designed not to answer a call if there are
no messages on the machine, thus signalling such to the caller without
him incurring a charge. There are several other examples of security
systems, energy devices, etc which use the telephone for signalling
without payment. AT&T was requested to respond as to their intentions
regards their own products and the technology used by non-telecom
related services (security devices, etc) and 'toll avoidance'. AT&T was
asked if their stance on this related only to organizations in direct
competition with that company.
How to Use Telepassport:
========================
An account is required of all users. TP cannot accept 'casual users' who
do not have a specific business relationship with us. This is because of
the nature of how the TP switch operates. Accounts are *very easy* to
set up, but accounts *are* required, since your telephone number must be
authorized to use the service. You need not call from an authorized
phone however; if you do so, your call will proceed without further
identification or security checks unless you ask us to incorporate this
feature. If you (as a subscriber) call from an unauthorized telephone,
then an account number and PIN must be entered as part of the session.
Subscribers who are outside the USA:
Three methods can be used to access Telepassport -
(A) Automatic Callback when calling from an authorized telephone:
1. Dial your TP access number in the USA (1-212-xxx-xxxx).
2. Let the phone ring once or twice (preferably twice to insure
we caught the signal), then hangup.
- You will receive a call within 10-20 seconds -
3. When our call arrives, pick up your receiver, then you will hear,
depending on your instructions one of these messages:
"Telepassport"
OR
"This call is for
OR
"Please transfer this call to extension xxx, if this is extension
xxx please press 1 on the keypad."
One of these messages (depending on how you have it set up) will play in
any of several languages, depending again on the language you have
chosen for the computer to use.
4. Press '1' at any time during the message.
- if you are not at your authorized telephone, or if you
instructed us to make the PIN mandatory on all calls you
will then hear, (in language of choice) "please enter
your PIN now."
5. If PIN required, enter it at this time.
- USA dial tone will be extended to you -
6. Dial the number you wish to reach followed by # (country code + city
code + number + #) ... for example, to Japan 81 44 954 3951# or to the
USA 1 818 956 6936#.
- you will hear a TP tone indicating your call is being
processed. -
If you get a busy signal, or the called party does not answer or you get
an error message, just press * to get dial tone and make another call if
you wish, or hang up. Also when the called party hangs up you may stay
on the line and make another call if desired.
If you make an error in dialing, just press *, wait for dial tone and
dial your call again. If you get an answering machine or some other
device answering the call, maintain silence for five to ten seconds
after speaking your message and you will hear dial tone.
(B) Immediate Callback (For use when not at your authorized telephone):
1. Dial the TP toll-free number from your country, or if toll-free is
not available in your country dial the direct number in New York (1-212-
xxx-xxxx).
Please note if toll-free access to us is not available in your country
then you will have to pay PTT charges for this call, however once you
connect with us, *immediatly* instruct the computer to make a callback
to you. This will limit your exposure to PTT charges to a minute or
less.
2. After dialing our toll-free number from your country (or our direct
New York number) you will hear the computer respond,
"Telepassport, please enter your account number and PIN".
Enter these numbers and you will hear a spurt of tone followed by
dial tone.
3. Either dial your call to completion as per 'automatic callback' -or-
preferably to keep your costs down access the Administrative Functions
Menu to arrange an immediate callback.
(C) If you choose to continue the call, we refer to this method as
'Direct Access'; if you choose to have us call you back, we refer to it
as 'Immediate Callback'.
You use 'Immediate Callback' or 'Direct Access' when you are NOT at an
authorized telephone number. When you are at an authorized telephone
number you merely call the number we give you, let it ring a couple
times and hang up to await our callback.
If you are calling from within the USA:
=======================================
1. Dial the number we assign you to call or the direct access number.
If you are calling from an authorized TP telephone, you will hear
'Telepassport' followed a second or two later by dialtone.
If not, you will hear 'Telepassport, please enter your account
number and your PIN'.
After entering this you will hear dialtone.
Regardless of where you are calling from, or how you access TP (that is,
by Direct Access or Automatic Callback) when you reach the dialtone you
can either place your call or access administrative functions.
To reach administrative functions, press 1# when you get dialtone.
You will hear:
"Press 1 to change your callback number, 2 to access your
account balance, 3 to change your callback message, 4 to
change your callback message language, 5 for an immediate
callback."
Changing your callback number:
Press 1. "Please enter your new callback number."
You enter the country code, city code (area code), number, and #.
You will be asked to re-enter it for confirmation. If you
do it the same way, fine, if not the computer will keep asking
until you get it the same way twice in a row.
We will then use this as the number to reach you for Automatic
Callbacks until you change it.
To change it back to your authorized telephone number as per
our records, when you are asked to 'enter new callback number'
just press #.
The computer will respond, 'your new callback number is
Press 2 to hear what credit balance remains in your account.
Press 3 to change the way we speak when we call you back. If the short
form 'Telepassport' is sufficient, you can indicate that. If you are in
a hotel or at a place where many people answer the phone or we need to
be transferred to an extension or room number, you can tell us with
choices 1, 2 or 3 how to ask for you:
"This call is for
If you tell the computer to ask for you at an extension number, the
computer will ask you to enter the extension number we are to ask for,
followed by #.
Press 4 to change the language we use when making callbacks to you.
Press 1 for English; 2 for Spanish; 3 for Mandarin; 4 for Japanese; 5
for German; 6 for French; 7 for Italian; 8 for Portugese; 0 to make
additional choices.
Your callback message ('connect this call to
Press 5 to get an immediate callback from us. The computer will ask you
to enter the number you want us to call you at. This will be the country
code, city code and number, followed by #.
After entering this, hangup. We will call you back in 10-20
seconds, at which time you would proceed as with Automatic
Callback.
To exit administrative functions menu at any time, press *.
Other features of Telepassport:
==============================
Voicemail: callers leave you messages. You retrieve later with your PIN.
Message forwarding: If called party is not available, you can record a
message. We will try to deliver it every two hours for four days.
Phone Home: You pay for the calls of relatives and customers, but only
on calls they make to you. The best way to describe this is that it is
very similiar to the AT&T Easy Reach 700 service.
Toll Free service from USA to other countries: If your country does not
offer toll free service (or offers it, but not from international
points) then TP will offer this to your customers in the USA. They will
dial an 800 number here, and get cut through to your international
number (as shown on our records, or to whatever is your 'callback
number' at the time).
We also offer speed dialing and restricted calling using four digit
codes. You can set it up so that persons calling you dial an 800 number
in the USA, then are permitted only to enter a four digit code to reach
you. Or you can allow employees to make calls to certain places while
not making calls to other places, etc.
Conference calls: dial multiple numbers linking participants from all
over the world.
Fax broadcast: send your fax to TP, and we forward to your distribution
list.
Above special services and rates discussed on request. Various special
applications can be designed.
Billing arrangements: All payments are made either by credit card or
electronic funds transfer from your bank to ours. You will receive a
very detailed monthly accounting. If you prefer, you may establish a
trust fund with the TP business office from which charges will be paid.
If you wish, a 'credit limit' will be set for monthly usage to assist
you in detecting abuse when usage for the month reaches the agrreed-upon
limit. TP does *not* offer open account billing at this time.
---------- RATES FOR CALLS ------------
This is probably the most important part to many of you. A full
schedule of rates would be impractical to list here; there are simply
too many countries which can call other countries, etc ... so this
sample listing will provide rates *to and from the USA* from other
countries, with some comments about calls from other countries to third
countries via the USA.
I'll be glad to quote rates between countries on request; just ask for
your specific application.
Our rates are composed of three parts. Calls to the USA, and certain
other countries where we have agreements in place will only see ONE OR
TWO of these components. Calls to third countries via the USA will see
either TWO OR THREE of these components.
The components are:
ACCESS CHARGE (a per session charge regardless of how long you
are connected through us)
INITIAL CHARGE (a per call charge which applies on many inter-
country calls via our switch)
PER MINUTE CHARGE (the cost of the call for each minute you
are connected, speaking with someone).
On calls to the USA from other countries, usually the only charge will
be the PER MINUTE charge. From some points, the ACCESS charge will also
apply. The INITIAL CHARGE will only apply when calling between other
countries using the USA as the transit routing. If we had *our way*,
only the PER MINUTE rates would apply ... but we must make payments to
the PTTs and AT&T for services they render to us, thus the ACCESS CHARGE
and INITIAL CHARGE in some instances.
Here are some sample rates to the USA from elsewhere. Where the rates
are shown as amount/amount/amount this means standard/discount/economy
rates, as per the custom in the country where the call originates. Time
of day for the call is always by local time in the country where the
call originates. Remember, the ACCESS CHARGE is made one time per
session; you can make several calls in succession by pressing the * key
between calls. Each callback by us (or direct access to us) counts as
one session, or one ACCESS CHARGE.
From (to USA) Access Charge Per Minute
============== ============= ==========
Venezuela 51 cents .91/.81/.81
Italy 36 cents $1.09/1.09/.80
Lebanon 86 cents $2.73/2.73/2.73
Mexico None .95/.95/.95 plus .16 INITAL
CHARGE
per call.
Canada None .39/.39/.39
China $2.12 $1.29/1.29/1.29
Greece 52 cents .91/.91/.91 plus .59 INITIAL
CHARGE
per call.
Korea Dem. Rep. $1.15 $1.20/1.20/1.20
Japan None .98/.85/.79
Colombia 68 cents $1.05/.94/.94
Taiwan 95 cents $1.04/.99/.99
Argentina 57 cents $1.39/1.19/1.19
CIS (USSR) 91 cents $1.81/1.81/1.81
Brazil 60 cents $1.50/1.30/1.30
Dominican Republic 23 cents .85/.85/.85
France None .89/.67/.60
Germany 28 cents .99/.99/.99
Haiti 31 cents $1.11/1.11/1.11
Israel 31 cents $1.03/.83/.80
United Kingdom None !! Fifty cents per minute
always !!
These are just a few examples ...
Now country to country via the USA gets tricky -- you can check out what
your local PTT charges for calls, knock off 30-40 percent in almost
every case, but add on an INITIAL CHARGE typically in the range of 50
cents to a dollar. The charge for the first minute therefore will be
INITIAL CHARGE plus MINUTE.
Now on calls from USA subscribers outbound:
TO: (from a USA origin) First 30 secs. Addl. 6 secs.
======================== ================ ===============
Argentina 1.18/1.02/.94 .07/.06/.05
Australia 1.00/1.00/1.00 .06/.06/.06
Germany .69/.67/.63 .06/.06/.05
Israel 1.25/1.25/1.25 .07/.07/.07
Netherlands .59/.43/.43 .06/.06/.06
Hong Kong 1.54/1.27/1.30 .07/.06/.06
Japan .34/.32/.30 .07/.06/.06
United Kingdom 48 cents per minute, all hours!
France 58 cents per minute, all hours!
Calls to Australia as an example would cost $1.30 for the first minute
and 60 cents per minute thereafter.
Calls to Japan as an example would cost between 60-70 per minute
depending on the time of day.
Calls to Hong Kong would cost 60-70 cents per minute after the first
minute which is much more expensive. The same is the case in calls to
Israel.
I am not privy to all the details as to why calls to some places have
higher first minutes; I do know that TP had to negotiate not only with
AT&T on outbound calls from the USA but also with various PTTs around
the world to meet their requirements and pay them certain fees, etc.
Also, I should point out that USA subscribers calling outbound will pay
an additional 9 cents per minute if they access TP via our 800 number
for that purpose. If they dial direct to our New York number, they pay
the rates shown above. It almost makes better sense (and we recommend)
for all callers to whenever possible use our automatic callback from
their authorized phone(s) or immediate callback to avoid the extra toll
charges while they are calling our switch.
To sign up for Telepassport service, send me email. In the course of our
discussion and sign up process, be prepared to supply the VISA/MC or
AMEX number you wish to have charges applied to periodically or the bank
account you wish to have debited for charges. (But we will be sending
you a detailed monthly analysis and billing in any event.)
Other fine print and 'gotcha!' things you should know about:
Anyone is free to sign up. Businesses will be the primary users of
Telepassport but individuals making at least $25 per month in
international calls are also invited to join the service. In fact, we
have a $25 per month minimum fee; you will be charged that minimum fee
unless your usage exceeds that amount.
Another 'gotcha!' --
We have both 'system time' and 'connect time'. System time is the time
between when you answer our callback and the party you are calling
answers the phone. Connect time is the time you are actually speaking
with your party.
When your caller disconnects (but you stay on the line to make another
call) then the 'system time' clock begins running again. As long as your
'system time' each month is not more than ten percent of the total
session time (system plus connect) we waive the charges for system time.
If your system time is excessive (i.e. in excess of ten percent of the
total amount of time you spend connected to us), then system time is
charged at the rate of a call to the United States. There is no system
time if the call is on your nickle, i.e. you dial our direct access
number and continue straight through. System time is only the time when
*we call you back*. And as stated above, provided this is not
excessive, we waive that charge.
How can you keep system time from being excessive? For one thing, a call
of ten minutes would in effect give you a free minute of system time.
When we call you back, be prepared to begin dialing immediatly. Answer
our phone calls promptly if we need to have someone call you to the
phone, as in a hotel. We offer speed dialing of your common numbers at
no extra charge. Most international connections from the USA can be done
in seconds if you dial rapidly and remember to put the # terminator on
the end of the dialing string.
If you were to spend let's say, two hours per month in actual talking
time on international calls, that 120 minutes would give you 12 minutes
of system time at no charge -- more than enough to dial your calls, wait
for the ringing, change your administrative options, etc. For most
users, this will never be a problem ... but I am required to tell you
that if you call us and hang on the line doing nothing but wasting our
time and money on the callback connection, we charge you for it.
Almost anytime you make a call that lasts two or three minutes or longer
your system time will be easily absorbed. And since it accumulates all
month, several short calls and one or two longer ones will reach the
same result: no system time charges. Remember the ratio is not more
than ten percent of the time on call set ups, administrative options,
etc.
Welcome to Telepassport! I hope it will provide a low-cost solution to
your international calling requirements both to and from the USA. For
precise rates, please ask, and certainly on calls between countries
where the USA is the switching point ask for rates. I could not begin to
list the thousands of actual rates in this message.
--
Patrick Townson
ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu
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