Re: [hylafax-users] Call to voice no says "no carrier detected" and comm time 0

[Lee Howard <faxguy@howardsilvan.com>]

On 2003.08.05 08:37 Aidan Van Dyk wrote:

> This will also start counting connection time before the dialing on
> every call, so a "NO ANSWER" call will have 10-20 seconds of
> connection
> time to invoice...

Closer to 30 seconds in Class 1.  It will vary in Class 2 depending on 
the S-register.  Many modems cannot distinguish between NO CARRIER and 
NO ANSWER (i.e. they don't support "@"), and it's not always ideal to 
use that feature anyway because some remote systems which try to 
distinguish the type of incoming call can not tell that the call is a 
fax (when "@" is used).

> How about tacking on a charge for all NO CARRIERs (i.e. they give
> you dirtier list, they get charged more, the cleaner their list, the
> less of these they get billed).

The time between ATD and +FCO/CONNECT can be quite a long time, 
especially in Class 2 if the systems take a while to handshake.  So 
even if the remote system *is* a fax machine connTime will be always be 
less than the actual connection time, and in some cases it could be 
substantially less.

In the analog world we've no way to know if the remote is off-hook or 
not until we get CONNECT/+FCO.  In the digital world the modem should 
know the precise moment at which the remote went off-hook, but getting 
that information from the modem may not be possible.  In either case, I 
think that completely accurate billing would require cross-referencing 
with the telco, so connTime then becomes irrelevant.

If cross-referencing is not feasible it then becomes a matter of policy 
on whether the company will bill its clients all time off-hook or 
something less.  Billing for time off-hook seems an appropriate way to 
"punish" dirty lists.  Furthermore, a company will usually bill a 
client for its resources that that are expended on behalf of the client 
not just for costs incurred.  So, whether or not there is an answer or 
not, resources are being used and consumed, and again the company needs 
to decide how it intends to recover that loss - even if it is merely an 
opportunity cost.

As it is, connTime tells us how quickly *HylaFAX* did its job.  This is 
useful when altering protocol and comparing sets of transactions to see 
if a particular protocol change improved transfer times.  connTime is 
not particularly useful in determining the connection time that the 
telco will use.

Lee.

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