Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!gryphon!vector!telecom-gateway From: dik@curing.cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Local Inter-NPA Calls and Number Conservation Message-ID: Date: 24 Nov 89 22:45:02 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: "Dik T. Winter" Organization: CWI, Amsterdam Lines: 31 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 531, message 3 of 6 In article Jay "you ignorant splut!" Maynard writes: > My work phone was 978-2xxx. A medium-sized engineering company was > 782-xxx0. I'd get calls all the time asking for the engineering > company, and each time, I'd patiently explain that they didn't need to > dial 9 before making an outside call from the phone they were using. > Some folks couldn't understand how I knew that. One person was > adamant about the need to dial 9 first, and it took me 10 minutes - on > his third call - to convince him otherwise. A very good reason for the system as used in a lot of countries: if you want to dial outward, you first dial the digit to get the outward line and then have to wait for dial-tone again. In that case you immediately know whether you have to dial an additional leading digit or not. BTW this explains also why there is no confusion in Australia where the general alarm number is 000, the code to get to the US is 0011 and the digit to get an outside line is 0. In a previous digest there was a question whether it would be confusing that to dial to the US from a phone that requires a leading digit for an outside number you started with 000. The answer is: no; you dial 0 wait for dial tone and follow with 00... Also in a number of countries you have to wait for dial tone after dialling an area code, as in the Netherlands. Autodiallers are not allowed here unless they are able to do that. dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland INTERNET : dik@cwi.nl BITNET/EARN: dik@mcvax