Z-Tel (www.z-tel.com) claims to offer "unlimited" local and LD telephone service for a very reasonable flat monthly fee. Calls within a local exchange are dialed (xxx-xxxx) and all other calls are dialed (1-xxx-xxx-xxxx). Their website, welcome materials, and all 3 customer service representatives we spoke to (prior to joining the service, 1/27/03) did not make *any* mention of restrictions in what type of calls were to be made. Their "Terms and Legal Agreements" contained only one sentence that could be remotely construed in support of their position on this issue....
   The issue? On February 13, 2003 we were contacted by Z-Tel's "Fraud Department" and told that we were in violation of their AUP because our computer modem was dialing an ISP with (1-xxx-xxx-xxxx)!!! We were advised to "ask our ISP to give us a local dialup number." We received the same advice from all operators we talked to at their "Customer Service" center. The "supervisor" admitted, when asked directly, that the one sentence in the "Terms/Legal" document was the basis for this policy, and that although it was not written down as such anywhere, the "Fraud Department" was in fact enforcing a "no digital data over LD line" policy whenever it became aware of such usage. Furthermore, the likely reason for the policy was simply that because people tend to leave the computers "online" for longer periods of time than they "talk" (use voice communication via telephone), Z-tel would face "excessive billing problems." (IOW, they can't make any money that way...)
   I would agree that Z-Tel has the right to limit usage on their system as they wish, but they are misleading individuals like us, who purchased their services expecting to find a "one source" solution for local and LD telephone service while dialing the internet in an nearby telephone exchange. Once again, THE POLICY DIDN'T APPEAR IN OUR DOCUMENTATION OR ON THE WEB AT THE DATE WE SUBSCRIBED! MISLEADING! (more details - www.daleco.biz/articles/ztel.html)