Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!texbell!chinacat!telecom-gateway From: dan@sics.se (Dan Sahlin) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Why Not 00 as the International Prefix in the US? Message-ID: Date: 26 Nov 89 16:25:30 GMT Sender: news@chinacat.Lonestar.ORG Organization: SICS, Swedish Inst. of Computer Science Lines: 26 Approved: telecom-request@chinacat.lonestar.org X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 533, message 1 of 10 This is a summary and some conclusions to answers to my question: "Why Not 00 as the International Prefix in the US?" John R. Levine came with the only relevant answer: > Actually, 00 is your long-distance company operator. The traditional AT&T > way to get international directory assistance is to call the operator, > hence dial 00 (or, I suppose, 10288-0). As no other numbers start with 00, it would be very simple in the US to start using it as the international prefix. Just like for numbers starting with 0, a timeout could be used to distinguish between calls to the long-distance company operator and the international prefix. Thus the US could then follow the international recommendations for international prefix (i.e. 00), instead of having 010 which is not used anywhere else in the world. I am dreaming the day when I can pick up a telephone anywhere in the world and dial home, always using the same number. Now many people avoid international calls because of all irregularities. I think the international traffic would increase, making all changes in the network quite worthwhile for the telephone companies. Dan Sahlin, dan@sics.se Sweden