Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!texbell!chinacat!telecom-gateway
From: covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert  30-Nov-1989 0343)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: AT&T Operator Handling of International D.A.
Message-ID: <telecom-v09i0543m05@chinacat.lonestar.org>
Date: 30 Nov 89 08:59:14 GMT
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 543, message 5 of 7

>The way to implement and administer DA on an international basis is the way
>it is done here in the USA:

>Dial country code + city code + 555-1212. Let the gateway switches
>translate that into an actual number, just as '6ll', '411', '911' and
>'800-xxx-yyyy' are presently translated into whatever number(s) they ring
>into.

>You tell me why it wouldn't work.   PT]

I'd like to have direct access to international D.A., but there are a number
of problems, many of which are not under the control of any single body:

1. Country code + city code + 555-1212 isn't always available.  In Sydney,
   Oz, it happens to be someone's valid phone number.  This is certainly
   true in many other places.

2. Sometimes it's too long.  The city code for Rimpar, Germany, is 9365.
   +49 9365 555-1212 is more digits than our local exchanges can handle.

   The above two problems could be handled by some other numbering scheme.
   As I said, I'd like to see direct access, but that's not the end of the
   story.

3. We can't force our culture on other countries.  D.A. operators there do
   not expect calls from customers.  They are in the business of only
   supporting other operators.  We're lucky in the U.S. that AT&T will even
   call overseas to get local assistance.  In Europe, international D.A.
   (and national D.A. for that matter) is provided by centralized operating
   centers (which often take a _loooong_ time to answer).  They have telephone
   books (really, I kid you not) for almost the whole world.  Only when they
   don't have the book (no matter how out of date the one they have is), do
   they _maybe_ make the call for you.

   By international agreement, these operators only accept calls from other
   operators, who are _supposed_ to be trained to speak carefully, to ask only
   the pertinent questions, to have all the information available when the
   operator answers, to use phonetic alphabets when necessary, and all sorts
   of things that you or I would do, but not Joe Sixpack.

   Our directory assistance system is much better.  But it's our system, not
   theirs.

4. More culture problems.  D.A. operators in some countries will extend the
   call to the called party after providing the number.  Remember, they are
   used to an operator being on the line.  We can't change the culture in other
   countries.

/john