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PINs required to make long distance calls

  • Published
  • 51st Communications Squadron
OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  Starting Tuesday, people on Osan will be required to use a personal identification number to place long distance calls from base telephones.

"This will reduce Team Osan's annual telephone bill and prevent abuse by ensuring that only authorized members can make commercial long distance calls," said Master Sgt. Roderick Fletcher, 51st Communications Squadron voice network systems NCO in charge.

He said this measure will reduce the base's phone bill for 2007 from the 2006 bill of almost $200,000.

"Once people know their phone calls can be traced based on their PINs, they are less likely to abuse the base's long distance privileges to make personal calls," Sergeant Fletcher said.

People who need to call commercial long distance in the performance of their official duties will be issued a PIN by their unit's telephone control officer. Once they have a PIN, they can dial the long distance call as usual but will need to enter the PIN when prompted to in order to complete the call.

People will need PINs to make calls that don't begin with 0505, 010, 011 and 031. Numbers that will need PINs include numbers in Seoul starting with 02, as well as numbers to places like Busan, Deagu and Gimhae. PINs are not required to make DSN calls to installations on the peninsula or overseas.

For people who want to make unofficial long distance phone calls, there are several methods available.

-- Morale call: From a phone that is capable of making DSN calls to stateside bases, call an operator at a base near the area that is being called. As long as the number is a local number for the base, the operator should be able to connect the phone call.

-- 809-4-OFF-DSN: Individuals needing to call a toll free number from DSN phones are able to dial 809-463-3376. After dialing, wait for a dial tone then dial the toll free number.

-- Morale calling cards: Military and family members assigned to Osan can be issued a morale calling card with 60 minutes of calling time per month. Morale calling cards are given out by request Monday through Friday by the morale call program coordinator located in the 51st CS telephone customer service office, Bldg. 949, Room 232.

For more information contact a unit TCO or call the 51st CS telephone customer service office at 784-3215.