Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: henry@garp.mit.edu (Henry Mensch) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Dial `A' for Albania Message-ID: <6292@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 11 Apr 90 17:27:37 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: henry@garp.mit.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 34 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 249, Message 7 of 13 [Picked up from the [New York Times]: Albania, whose hard-line Communist government is known for jealously preserving the country's isolation, will soon allow citizens to accept telephone calls from the United States. American Telephone & Telegraph Co. said Wednesday it will begin offering operator-assisted calls to Albania next month. Richard A. Wallerstein, spokesman for AT&T, said that on March 24 Albania began without explanation to allow its citizens to dial direct to more than 50 countries. The government agreed soon afterward to allow incoming calls from the United States, he said. Only three other countries still do not accept calls placed from the United States: North Korea, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is unclear how many Americans want to call Albanians or whether they will be able to reach them. Calls handled by AT&T will travel through a cable from Italy that carries just 80 telephone lines. Even AT&T has no idea how many telephones there are in Albania, a country where the private ownership of automobiles is forbidden and most people travel on foot or by oxcart. # Henry Mensch / / E40-379 MIT, Cambridge, MA # / /