New N.Y. Law Targets Hidden Net LD Tolls

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From owner-nanog@merit.edu Thu Aug 18 11:04:41 2005
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 07:56:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Barak <thegameiam@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: New N.Y. Law Targets Hidden Net LD Tolls
To: Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com>, nanog@merit.edu

> I assume the NY AG will also be targeting
> enforcement of Domino's Pizza
> because they have lots of phone numbers and
> consumers may unknowingly dial
> a phone number to order a pizza which may be a toll
> call in their area.

A typical call to Domino's lasts < 2 minutes, and if
it's not actually a local call, you're almost
certainly not in the delivery area (and would get
redirected to the correct store). Accidentally
dialing a nonlocal Domino's results in a $.10 bill
(and no pizza).

A typical call to a dial-up ISP is what, a few hours?
Multiple times per month? Accidentally using a
non-local ISP number can result in a bill in the
hundreds of dollars pretty easily (also no pizza).

All true, but *WHY* is that 'accidentally dialing a non-local ISP number'
the *ISP's* fault??

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Who said anything about fault? This is merely a
recognition on the part of Government that consumers
might make a costly mistake. The Government decided
to tell ISPs to give the consumers an extra notice to
try to prevent that.

Not unreasonable at all (although personally, I like
the TX-style "all your long distance are 11D, else
10D" approach). Simple consumer protection, similar
to the <offtopic warning!>
requirement to publish both per item and per measured
unit pricing on foodstuffs...< /offtopic>

-David

David Barak
Need Geek Rock? Try The Franchise:
http://www.listentothefranchise.com

3

Because the ISP gave the number to the user, often accompanied by text that implied
that the number provided was an economical way to get connected.

"Here's a list of our local numbers:"

"Here's a list of our numbers in your area code. Some numbers may be toll calls
from some locations in the area code, please double-check."

As far as I can tell, they're requiring the second rather than the first.

Move along, nothing to see... :wink: