Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: "Robert M. Hamer" Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: My List of North American Area Codes Message-ID: <8653@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 4 Jun 90 15:01:00 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 44 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 413, Message 4 of 9 On Sun, 3 Jun 90 03:29:38 PDT Linc Madison writes: (With respect to whether "1+" is part of the phone number (in this case, the area code) or not: >you say "it _certainly_ is the wrong access code for most parts of the >world." No, it _certainly_ is the RIGHT access code for the ENTIRE >world. Additional access codes may be required ahead of it, but no >matter where you go in the world, "1" is the access code for the U.S. I really am not sure this is worth going on about, because I don't know if the rest of the Digest is interested in the topic or not, but... The point is that the "1+" is an access code, and not part of the phone number. In the US or elsewhere. Actually, when I use my Sprint FON card, a "1+" never plays a role in the dialing: it seems to be "0+"; I don't know about other calling/credit cards. And when I call from a hotel, using whatever rip-off system the hotel has (Yes, I know, but my company will cheerfully pay large phone bills billed to the hotel room, but has trouble with me telling them that I called using my own Sprint card) as often as not, I dial "8+" or some such code, getting me direct access to an LD trunk, from which I dial the area code and phone number. As a matter of fact, as I type this, it occurs to me that in my office, I dial "8" to get a LD dial tone, and then I dial just the area code, no "1+". The point I am trying to make is that what we dial is divided into access codes and phone number, and they are not one and the same. We ought to be clearer about stating what the phone number is when we claim that what we are giving out is the phone number. When I first started using the Internet, I had a terrible time guessing what part of the From: or Reply-to: field was indeed the actual user@node, and what was some sort of routing information the various intermediate mailers had stuck on in an effort to provide me with something that would work, even if much of it turned out to be unnecessary. Again, it may not be worth it to start a thread on it, but I would assert that the "1+" is an access code, and the area code does not include it, and neither does the phone number.