Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: klb@lzaz.att.com (K.BLATTER) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Phone Remarks in Clancy Novel Message-ID: Date: 18 Sep 89 20:34:02 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: AT&T ISL Lincroft NJ USA Lines: 42 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 387, message 6 of 7 In article , loughry@tramp.colorado. edu (J. Loughry) writes: > I found this tidbit in Tom Clancy's new novel, "Clear and Present Danger." > Jack Ryan (who lives near Annapolis, I believe) is out mowing the lawn when > he receives a call on his cordless phone. He answers it, then: > > "Ryan terminated the call and placed one to his house, which had three > lines. It was, perversely, a long-distance call. He needed a D.C. > line for his work. Cathy needed a Baltimore connection for hers, plus > a local line for other matters." > > Maybe someone can explain this to us Westerners. > > Joe Loughry > loughry@tramp.colorado.edu Clearly this is an example of using FX (Foreign eXchange) lines. Jack had an FX Line which terminated in Washington DC, and Cathy had an FX line which terminated in Baltimore. Perhaps someone else out there in netland could give a better description of an FX line, but here goes my explanation... An FX line is a suscriber line which terminates in a central office other than the central office which provides local access to the telephone network. These numbers are most often used by businesses that have operations in another city which would justify the added expense of one of these lines. If you subscribe to this feature, you would literally have a phone number which would be non-local. Therefore, referring to Clancy's novel, in calling his own house from his yard over an FX line, he would have to make a toll call. Also, most people are familiar with this service as radio stations often use this service -- especially stations that have large broadcast areas. I remember growing up and when the radio station would have a contest, they would list six or seven numbers that listeners could call into to win. While each of these numbers was from a different geographical area, they all terminated at the radio station. Kevin L. Blatter AT&T - Bell Labs Standard Disclaimer