Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!uwm.edu!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: rmadison@euler.berkeley.edu (Linc Madison) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: 011 for International Message-ID: Date: 27 Oct 89 21:42:29 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 19 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 476, message 6 of 10 In article , Bob Goudreau: >Does anyone out there know why "011" was chosen as the international >access code here in the North American Numbering Plan? If it were up >to me, I'd probably pick "11" instead (i.e., "1" for long distance and >"11" for *very* long distance, the way many European countries use "0" >and "00"). Is there currently some special meaning assigned to "11"? As has been noted in a couple of recent articles, "11" is reserved for certain custom calling features from pulse-dial phones. For example, I can dial 70* to cancel call waiting, or I can dial 1170. This scheme is in wide use across much of the country. The one thing I would've changed is that it seems logical to me to say, "Dial 01 for international, and then 1 if it's direct-dial or 0 for operator assistance," to make it more analogous to domestic calls. Thus we would have 011/010 instead of 011/01. Linc Madison = rmadison@euler.berkeley.edu