[Imc-newsroom] long distance charges:

[Clint Popetz]

On Sun, Dec 01, 2002 at 01:08:00PM -0600, Sascha Meinrath wrote:
> hi all,
> 
> whoever made a long-distance call to ecuador at 9:14am on november 8th,
> please contact me.  the UCIMC has a block on long-distance calls --
> unfortunately, someone found a work-around (and a really expensive one at
> that).  here is the problem -- this call cost over $6/minute (!) -- this
> means that the UCIMC now has a $140 bill to AT&T.  i expect that the UCIMC
> will be reimbursed for most of these charges by whoever made the call --
> that person also has the option of attempting to contact AT&T to address
> this highway robbery.

Maria Silva made this call, with my help, to do an interview for the
newshour with one of the directors of the campsesino groups which
organized the anti-FTAA uprising in November.

I was told that the only way to call long-distance from the IMC was
with the the work-around, which you gave me.  I also knew the
workaround had been used to do previous phone interviews for the
newshour, so I assumed it was kosher to do it again.  I had not been
told it was really expensive.

IMHO, not being able to do long distance phone interviews from the IMC
without jumping through hoops, and then having the hoops be very
expensive, is a realy hamper to doing radio news there.

			-Clint