Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!bellcore!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: nmri!!stanley@uunet.uu.net (John Stanley)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: 800 Service and Their Local Phone Numbers
Message-ID: <8987@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 15 Jun 90 13:39:33 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 436, Message 6 of 12


Recently, from coplex!dannie@uunet.uu.net (Dannie Gregoire):

>I understand that for each 800 line that exists there is a
>corresponding local (7 digit) number for it.  Is this true?  If it is,
>can the "local" number be used for incomming local calls without
>charge (Normally you cannot call a "local" 800 number)?

  There usually is such a number. How it is used depends on the 800
service provider, it seems.

  While we had an 800 number from AT&T, it had a secret local number
that was supposed to be for test purposes only. I was told by the
installer that gave me the number (perhaps not the best source, but A
source) that billing was based on traffic through that number and
calling it locally would cost just like a normal 800 number call. This
was when the incoming line was a dedicated wire just for the 800
number.

  When we moved our 800 service to MCI, they asked us for the number
to have calls come in on. In all other regards, this is a normal line,
with its own number, just like any other line NYTel provides us. If we
wished, we could have our 800 calls come in on our main, published
line, and we could have all our 800 calls hunt up through the sequence
just like other calls. Since we want to have some way of identifying
who is calling in on the 800 number, we have had those calls come in
on a separate number that then hunts to the main number when busy.

  In short, the MCI 800 service can be thought of as: 800 number call
is carried on MCI net to a Syracuse MCI office, MCI office picks up a
phone and dials the Syracuse number we told them to dial, and connects
the 800 call to that. AT&T needed to have a pair in their office to
connect the 800 call to, which NYTel just happened to also assign a
number to, and AT&T asked NYTel for the billing info.

  AT&T may have changed the system in the last two years -- it was
that long ago we used them.