Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Mark Brader Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: I Want to Dial the Area Code Even on a Local Call Message-ID: <8231@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 24 May 90 15:32:40 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 35 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 382, Message 8 of 11 > Dan Jacobson had introduced the subject by stating how annoying it was > to have to reprogram his telephone's memory locations when he crossed > an area code boundary ... Isaac Rabinovitch had commented that the > telephone should be intelligent enough to do this for him ... > I submitted a question to the Digest about two months ago, asking what > possible cause there could be to forbid eleven-digit local dialing ... Implementation issues aside, there is a simple reason to forbid it, one which has certainly been mentioned in this forum in the past. Certainly it is not that strong a reason, but in the traditional environment where people were NOT carrying telephones with memories all over the place, it was the most relevant one. If I dial 1-416-759-0000, it is rejected because that is not the way to dial the local number 759-0000, and *therefore I must have misdialed*. Perhaps I really wanted 1-415-759-0000, say; San Francisco instead of Toronto. So why bother the poor wretch who has that number in Toronto? In the old days when "leading 1 means long distance" applied here, this argument was even stronger, as this would also apply if I dialed 1-416-759-0000 from, say, Hamilton, within area 416 but not a local call. Now, however, we have to dial an area code on all long distance calls, and 1-416-759-0000 is the way to dial Toronto's 759-0000 from Hamilton. (I know that 759 exists in Toronto and San Francisco. I don't know if 759-0000 exists and I'd rather you did not dial it to find out!) Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com "Have you ever heard [my honesty] questioned?" "I never even heard it mentioned." -- Every Day's a Holiday