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International Reply Coupon

en.wikipedia.org

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Re: International Reply Coupon

#11

Post by gowld »

ggm wrote: post #8
codesections wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoting for context: “ In 1920, Charles Ponzi made use of the idea that profit could be made by taking advantage of the differing postal rates in different countries to buy IRCs cheaply in one country and exchange them for stamps of a higher value in another country. His attempts to raise money for this venture became instead the fraudulent Ponzi scheme.[24] In practice, the overhead on buying and selling large numbe…

I am told this is how bilat gaming in the POTS telephone days worked: you found an economy which had a deficit in billing settlement with a US phone net, and exploited it with call initiation and call termination through a PBX to make coin off the ex-pats calling home, with the phone company happy to soak the time on a long held international call to get back to parity in the bilat settlement. There were said to be q…

Plain English translation?

Re: International Reply Coupon

#12

Post by WillAdams »

lmm wrote: post #9

I sent these out with my international wedding invitations (in Japan it's normal to include a stamped reply postcard). Had to go around several large post offices to get enough (indeed I thought they must've stopped making them and only be selling leftover stock, although the wikipedia page and Japan Post website suggest otherwise). Felt like a fun old-timey experience, like sending a telegram or postal order. Most o…

Similarly, bought one to include with the wedding invitation which we sent to the Pope and got a very nice note back.

Additionally, my best man sent my father-in-law the traditional congratulatory telegram, which they "delivered" by calling him on the phone and reciting it, then mailing the physical telegram.

(apparently I'm old, at least that's what my son who was born in January 2000 keeps saying)

Re: International Reply Coupon

#13

Post by dylan604 »

gowld wrote: post #11
ggm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am told this is how bilat gaming in the POTS telephone days worked: you found an economy which had a deficit in billing settlement with a US phone net, and exploited it with call initiation and call termination through a PBX to make coin off the ex-pats calling home, with the phone company happy to soak the time on a long held international call to get back to parity in the bilat settlement. There were said to be q…

Plain English translation?

People gamed MaBell to take advantage of currency exchange rates while offering a long distance service that was very popular with people from that specific country

Re: International Reply Coupon

#15

Post by ggm »

dylan604 wrote: post #13
gowld wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plain English translation?

People gamed MaBell to take advantage of currency exchange rates while offering a long distance service that was very popular with people from that specific country

Not really currency rates. More the private settlement between national carriers which were a bilateral peering agreement, not unlike current peering/settlement between ISPs: neither party wants to give money but loves receiving money and in many respects, I am told the USG asked the bells to use this as a way to shovel money into developing economies worldwide: Unlike every other economy, the US had no single nationalised Public Telephone Company or PTT, so there was a wierd asymmetry around this process, US foreign policy, aide money.

By turning a blind eye to some rather odd call source and call sink behaviours, a lot of cash went from the US into the national telcos overseas. Where it went after that isn't entirely clear.

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