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jfmezei
Premium Member
join:2007-01-03
Pointe-Claire, QC

jfmezei to InvalidError

Premium Member

to InvalidError

Re: How would I request the elimination of the touch-tone fee?

Invalid, it isn't "the number of people who cannot have touch tone". Everyone can get touch tone.

But when the touch tone fee was made mandatory, it applied only to new installations and those that were already on touch tone.

Those who were on rotary at the time were given waivers where there would not be charged the Touch Tone fee for as long as their phone line remained that way.

There are even rumours that Bell spent money to block touch tone dialing on those grand fathered lines.

nitzguy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-11
Sudbury, ON

nitzguy

Premium Member

said by jfmezei:

Invalid, it isn't "the number of people who cannot have touch tone". Everyone can get touch tone.

But when the touch tone fee was made mandatory, it applied only to new installations and those that were already on touch tone.

Those who were on rotary at the time were given waivers where there would not be charged the Touch Tone fee for as long as their phone line remained that way.

There are even rumours that Bell spent money to block touch tone dialing on those grand fathered lines.

Incorrect. All lines whether or not the fee is being charged, can receive touch tone service...Unless you're truly in the wilderness or on a super ancient CO, all switches have been upgraded to touch tone...its just a "billing" issue...at this point...Have to wait for all those old people to die before it gets rolled into the monthly price...

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

1 edit

Davesnothere to jfmezei

Premium Member

to jfmezei
said by jfmezei:

....There are even rumours that Bell spent money to block touch tone dialing on those grand fathered lines.

 
They absolutely DID, and the earliest method was a physical filter at the CO to make the CO not 'Hear' the TT if you tried to dial that way.

However, as soon as the connection was established using pulse, you could switch your phone to 'Tone' and access various services like telephone banking, etc.

My father did this until 2007, when he moved to a retirement home and got a new number, as the home was in a different community, and then had to take and pay for TT from B$ELL.

BTW, almost all calling features can be used without TT, yet B$ELL periodically promotes a bald-faced lie to the contrary, to try to coerce the remaining grandfathered pulse-peeps to give up pulse when they have not moved (the main criteria for ending grandfathering).

Ott_Cable
@teksavvy.com

Ott_Cable

Anon

>the earliest method was a physical filter at the CO to make the CO not 'Hear' the TT if you tried to dial that way.

A physical filter would be very difficult (and expensive). Touch tone is within voice band, so the multiple notch filters also have to be extremely narrow (i.e. high Q) filters. More likely, they block the touch tone functionality on the linecard.

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

Davesnothere

Premium Member

said by Ott_Cable :

A physical filter would be very difficult (and expensive). Touch tone is within voice band, so the multiple notch filters also have to be extremely narrow (i.e. high Q) filters. More likely, they block the touch tone functionality on the linecard.

 
That may have been an oversimplification, though it was explained to me that way back then.

But whatever it was, it originally cost them extra to accomplish the blocking (and may still today, some have posted here), which is a major point against charging more for TT than for Pulse.

Ott_Cable
@teksavvy.com

Ott_Cable

Anon

>But whatever it was, it originally cost them extra to accomplish the blocking

But that "filtering" would disappear after the dialing, so there will need to be a bypass that knows when the connection is done. Very likely the dialing function is simply disabled, but all the tones can pass. That is a lot easier, cleaner to implement.

May be they need to pay a software licensing option to do that. Or they simply don't disable that anymore. 10 digit dialing on pulse dial at 10 pulse per second with enough pauses between digits would mean it may be on average 6-7 seconds just for dialing on a keypad. On rotary phone (if they still have that) would be far worse.

old_phone
@teksavvy.com

old_phone to Davesnothere

Anon

to Davesnothere
Interesting that nobody has replied with current, first-hand experience. Touch tone dialing is indeed blocked by Bell on a non-touch tone line, at least in Toronto. I just tried it; don't work.

I hope they don't force us someday to start paying for touch tone service. Rotary dialing works just fine thanks. Our old Northern Telecom dial phones are built stronger than any phone currently made. We also have a switchable phone that makes touch tone sounds after you press *. No problem using that with any IVR system (voicemail, etc.).

We have basic phone service with no features at all. The touch tone fee would represent an increase of about 13%. No thanks.