Metroliner telephone article 4127

Stephen Sprunk

I can't speak to PUC pricing which is a mismash.

But their cost of offering services IS variable and dependent on usage. When they install a switch, they estimate how many lines the community will need, how much traffic and peaks, and how many premium services will be required. The switch is purchased with the appropriate hardware to serve those needs. If they underestimate, then they must go out upgrade the hardware.

So while on a very specific one-to-one basis there is not a direct correlation (the physical line to your house usually is there already), but there does remains a relation. If it happens they must run a new cable to serve you, you won't pay the incremental cost of that new cable. Likewise, if your Caller ID request puts the switch overload and they must buy more hardware, you won't pay for it either. Hey, you might be the one who forces them to build an addition to the building, as happened in my town.

Again, as to Touch Tone, before ESS that was an extra cost for the phone company to serve. With ESS it's not (AFAIK, though the frequence decoder may be more than the simple logic of scanning the line which has to be done anyway). Someone else mentioned using 20 pulse-second dialing. That wouldn't work on many pre-ESS machines, such as Step-by-step. It may or may not have worked on other machines depending on the sender you happened to access.