Posted by Mike Field on September 21, 2002 at 02:40:49 from 203.26.98.4 user mikefield.
In Reply to: Re: Calling Long Distance posted by Robert Dilley on September 21, 2002 at -1:36:01:
Local phone calls here in Oz are flat-fee, and I think always have been.
It's by no means a custom, but sometimes members of our family will telephone recent hosts to say they've arrived. But to save paying any fee, flat-rate or not, we use a code -- three rings and hang up says "we're home," after which three rings and hang up from the other end says, "Okay, message received and understood."
And in my early days of using public telephones (fourpence a call,) it was possible to dial the other person from the public phone-box without using any coins, get your connection, shout into the earpiece to say whatever you wanted to say, then quickly transfer the earpiece back to your ear to hear the reply. The conversation could continue in tbis manner for as long as you wanted, free of charge (provided you didn't mind passers-by hearing your end of it,,,,)
THis didn't work for long-distance unfortunately, as all trunk calls had to be booked through an operator.
The wheels of bureaucracy grind slowly but tbey grind prety small, and eventually the PMG, killjoys that they were, changed all the public telephones so that no connection could be made until after coins had been inserted and accepted.