New Member Information

• CATC’s billing cycle is approximately 25 days
• Bills are mailed around the 1st –3rd of each month. This date may vary due to weekend or holidays.
• The bills are due around the 23rd of each month. This date may vary due to weekends or holidays.
• If the bill is not paid by 4:30 on the due date, a disconnect notice is mailed the following day. A $3.00 late charge is added to the next month’s bill.
• The disconnect amount is due on the due date shown on the disconnect notice. This date may vary due to weekends or holidays. The disconnect notice will show local charges, long distance charges, internet charges and TV charges.
• You may come to the business office before 4:30 on the due date and pay ¼ of the past-due amount and sign an agreement to pay the balance in 3 installments. These installments are due on the 24th of each month. Your long distance will be blocked until the balance is paid in full. Your current bill amount must be paid by the current due date or service will be disconnected.
• If the disconnect notice amount is not received in the business office by 4:30 on the due date, the services will be disconnected the following day.
• To reconnect full service, you must pay total past due amount. A $15.00 charge will be added to your next month’s bill for voice. A $25.00 reconnect fee will be charged for both BROADBAND and TV. The BROADBAND and TV reconnect fee will need to be paid at time of reconnect.
• If the account is not paid within 7 days of being disconnected for non-payment, the account is permanently disconnected.
• To reconnect a permanently disconnected account there will be a charge of $32.75 for residential voice customers and a $37.75 charge for voice business.
• If the account is not paid within approximately 3 months CATC turns the account over to a collection agency. At this point any arrangements will need to be made between you and the collection agency. The collection agency may add interest charges, court costs and fees if necessary, to the principle amount.
• There is an initial install fee of $32.75 for voice residential and $37.75 for voice business. An initial processing fee or $15.00 for Broadband and TV service.
• CATC bills a month in advance.

Bismarck 501-865-3333

Donsaldson 501-384-2345

Repair/Plant — 501-865-2600

24 HOUR 7 DAYS WEEK/TECHNICAL SUPPORT NUMBERS

Broadband—501-865-2282 | TV—501-865-2292

• 1. Pay by phone with your debit/credit card or checking account
• 2. Pay online at catc.smarthub.coop
• 3. Pay online at www.catc.net
• Sign up for auto draft from your checking account/debit/credit card

CALL US AT 501-865-3333 OR 501-384-2345 FOR MORE INFORMATION

1. To access voicemail from your home phone, dial 865-6245 (865-mail). It will immediately start playing new messages. Follow commands to save, skip, delete messages.
2. To access voicemail from a phone other than the home phone, still dial 501-865-6245, it will ask for a mailbox number. Mailbox number will be 501 plus your home phone number. Then wait a couple of seconds, and it will ask for password. You can speed it up a little by adding # to the end of your home phone number. Example 5018652600#. If 501 is not input, it will tell you no matching mailbox is found. After entering mailbox, it will ask for password followed by #.
3. The first time you access the voicemail, you will be required to change your password. If needed the default password is 0000. Your password can be any combination of 1- 4 numbers. At least 2 numbers are recommended, but 4 is preferred. You will need to remember what you change the password to.
4. When voicemail is set up, there will be a default message that says “the party you have dialed does not answer, please leave a message after the tone” then gives instructions. You may change the default greeting if preferred to your personal greeting.
5. If you have new messages, they need to be saved, or deleted before you can make changes to the greeting, once that is done it will go through menu options and you can press * for main menu then follow the menu options.
6. Main menu option 9 to setup voice mailbox then options are 1-greetings options, 2-change password, 5 change language settings, 8 record names. Go from there for additional options, greeting recording, etc.
7. If you have existing messages you must listen to them first. You cannot access the main menu until you have listened to messages. Pressing * will get you access to main menu after listening to messages.
8. Default setting is 4 rings before voicemail picks up, this can be changed if necessary. If not answered by the end of the 4th ring, the call will go to voicemail and can’t be interrupted.

Central Arkansas Telephone Cooperative (CATC) understands the frustration of getting unwanted robocalls, calls from unknown numbers and telemarketer calls. Seeing these calls originated outside the CATC service area makes blocking these type calls very difficult. Furthermore, up until a few months ago the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would not allow companies to block these types of calls.

Now, with authority given by the FCC CATC is now able to implement a new Terminating Call Management -Trunk Group Challenge process, or more commonly known as The Opt-Out Toll Blocking system. This process with be implemented company-wide with each customer having the option to “opt out” of the service if desired by simply calling the business office. CATC has gone to considerable expense to implement this software, however, we will not be passing this cost on to our members.

Callers from outside our area will receive a message challenging the caller to press 1 if they are not a telemarketer. If the caller presses 1 the call will be completed and if the caller fails to press 1 or if the caller’s number is on a blocked call list, the call will be terminated. Once the caller presses 1 and the call is accepted, the caller will not have to repeat the process of future calls to the same number. Although this system should stop the majority of unwanted calls, it is not foolproof. Some Telemarketers will press 1 and the call will be sent on to you. In this case, if this is still an unwanted call, you simply need to hang up and press *96 and the call number will be placed on the blocked call list.

As stated above, this is an Opt-Out system and if you do not want to have your land line associated with this software option, simply call the business office and the call blocking option will be removed from your number. This system has been adopted by a number of telephone companies across the United States and is a great success story in the effort to stop unwanted calls. This Software system learns based on challenges and customer originated blocks and updates and maintains a blocked number list. Also, this service will not affect caller ID, call waiting, or other calling options. CATC continues to give customers the availability of the most advanced telecommunications services. If you have any questions concerning this new call blocking software, do not hesitate to call the business office.

Larry Frazier
General Manager