Bye bye long distance services?

[DeusxMac]

For business customers; which probably includes some folks here.

"SERVICE WITHDRAWAL Pending state and regulatory approval where applicable, BellSouth Telecommunications, LLC d/b/a AT&T North Carolina (AT&T) and BellSouth Long Distance, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Long Distance Service will discontinue the following services on or after March 18, 2016:

Bill to a Third Number
Verification and Emergency Interrupt Service
Collect calls
Person to Person calls
International Directory Assistance."


http://cpr.att.com/pdf/bsld/nc/intra_bus...otice.html

[hal]

Emergency Interrupt Service - I forgot about that one. Been a LONG, LONG time since I've heard of anyone doing that one.

I suppose that kids these day don't even know what a 'busy signal' is.

[Paul F.]

hal wrote:
Emergency Interrupt Service - I forgot about that one. Been a LONG, LONG time since I've heard of anyone doing that one.

I suppose that kids these day don't even know what a 'busy signal' is.

I had no idea that could even still be done...

[raz]

Paul F. wrote:
[quote=hal]
Emergency Interrupt Service - I forgot about that one. Been a LONG, LONG time since I've heard of anyone doing that one.

I suppose that kids these day don't even know what a 'busy signal' is.

I had no idea that could even still be done...
I think my Mother (who worked for Ma Bell back in the day) used it once or twice.

[hal]

Paul F. wrote:
[quote=hal]
Emergency Interrupt Service - I forgot about that one. Been a LONG, LONG time since I've heard of anyone doing that one.

I suppose that kids these day don't even know what a 'busy signal' is.

I had no idea that could even still be done...
That's because you'd need to have two people with land lines and one without call-waiting. VERY rare these days.

When I was little, I remember it being done often. It almost ALWAYS involved teenaged girls on the phone. Back then it was uncommon for a family to have more than one line in the house. I remember LOTS of arguments with ATT folks about when it could and could not be evoked. More than once, I remember that result was that the person being called had intentionally left the phone off the hook (remember THAT?)

[cbelt3]

hal wrote:
Emergency Interrupt Service - I forgot about that one. Been a LONG, LONG time since I've heard of anyone doing that one.

I suppose that kids these day don't even know what a 'busy signal' is.

I used this once in my life to tell a co-worker's wife to get her ass to the hospital because her husband had had a heart attack at work. He survived. I had seen it used once in a movie, and called the operator and asked her to 'break in' on a phone call. She did. It was pretty cool, actually.

[Black]

hal wrote:
[quote=Paul F.]
[quote=hal]
Emergency Interrupt Service - I forgot about that one. Been a LONG, LONG time since I've heard of anyone doing that one.

I suppose that kids these day don't even know what a 'busy signal' is.

I had no idea that could even still be done...
That's because you'd need to have two people with land lines and one without call-waiting. VERY rare these days.

When I was little, I remember it being done often. It almost ALWAYS involved teenaged girls on the phone. Back then it was uncommon for a family to have more than one line in the house. I remember LOTS of arguments with ATT folks about when it could and could not be evoked. More than once, I remember that result was that the person being called had intentionally left the phone off the hook (remember THAT?)
Seems like a thousand years ago.

[Speedy]

hal wrote:
[quote=Paul F.]
[quote=hal]
Emergency Interrupt Service - I forgot about that one. Been a LONG, LONG time since I've heard of anyone doing that one.

I suppose that kids these day don't even know what a 'busy signal' is.

I had no idea that could even still be done...
That's because you'd need to have two people with land lines and one without call-waiting. VERY rare these days.

When I was little, I remember it being done often. It almost ALWAYS involved teenaged girls on the phone. Back then it was uncommon for a family to have more than one line in the house. I remember LOTS of arguments with ATT folks about when it could and could not be evoked. More than once, I remember that result was that the person being called had intentionally left the phone off the hook (remember THAT?)
Did it any number of times when I was a teenager driving broken down old beaters in our Minnesota winters, having three younger siblings tying up the phone. The operator would listen in to make sure it was a legit reason (I could hear when the operator disconnected.)

I even remember when there were living, breathing operators you could get by dialing zero. Try that nowadays.

[MartyStickle]

Ok now I'll really show my age...I remember when there was NO dial. You picked up the receiver and waited for the women on the other end to say "operator". You gave her (it was always a her) the number and she connected it. Sometimes you didn't even need to know the number; you just said "give me Joe's hardware store" or something like that.

OK, enough nostalgia.

[Onamuji]

MartyStickle wrote:
Ok now I'll really show my age...I remember when there was NO dial. You picked up the receiver and waited for the women on the other end to say "operator". You gave her (it was always a her) the number and she connected it. Sometimes you didn't even need to know the number; you just said "give me Joe's hardware store" or something like that.

OK, enough nostalgia.

I remember first discovering 976 numbers through dial-santa hotlines.

...And dialing every combination of 976-wxyz digits I could calculate that night.

...90% of which turned out to be pre-recorded sex-messages.

...Which did not mean much to me in infancy. I noted the joke-of-the-day numbers.

...And my parents never complained about the phone bill. 'Still don't know how I avoided being grounded for life.