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AT&T SUES OVER 'FAT-FINGER' DIALING

New York, NY March 30, 2003 (ICB TOLL FREE NEWS) Associated Press reports that AT&T Corp. has filed a lawsuit contending that Sprint Corp. and two other rival telephone companies are stealing calls from AT&T toll-free operators through what is alleged to be a ``fat-finger dialing'' scheme.

In the suit filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday, AT&T says Sprint, along with One Call Communications and ASC Telecom, has dozens of toll-free numbers that are similar to AT&T's operator-assisted service, ``1-800 CALL ATT.''

A caller who misdials when calling the AT&T number to place a collect call, for example dialing 1-800-CELL-ATT, will be connected to ASC Telecom operators, which charges rates much higher than AT&T, according to the suit.

AT&T is asking the court to compel Sprint, One Call, and ASC to surrender numbers such as 1-800 CAAL ATT and 1-800 CALT ATT. The suit also seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Ironically, AT&T still holds 1 800 CALL MCI which answers "AT&T".

In 1994 after MCI decided not to mention its name in connection with its service, researchers found 50% of those using MCI's 1 800 COLLECT number assumed it was run by AT&T. When AT&T attempted to retaliate with its own 1 800 OPERATOR number, it found that many callers dialed 1 800 OPERATER instead, which is an MCI toll free number. (Business Week 6/13/94 p.78)

Unbeknownst to AT&T, MCI was quietly making an extra $300,000 per month receiving misdialed calls to their 1 800 OPERAT-E-R misspelling of the number. When AT&T finally found out they were losing a large volume of business, they switched to 1 800 CALL ATT. To make sure they minimized any new misdial problems, AT&T made sure they got 1 800 CALL MCI and as many other misdial versions of the 1 800 CALL ATT number as they could. MCI has employed a similar strategy with 1 800 COLLECT, getting 1 800 C-(zero)-LLECT and other similar "protective" misdial numbers.

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