Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: lars@spectrum.cmc.com (Lars Poulsen)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: How Does Changing of Prefix by Telco Improve Service?
Message-ID: <10038@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 23 Jul 90 17:25:58 GMT
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In article <9993@accuvax.nwu.edu> todd@ivucsb.sba.ca.us (Todd Day)
writes:

>		UCSB Telephone Prefix Changes to 893

I would hope that somebody from UCSB Telecom can give better
information, but the following represents what I as a "neighbor"
believe.

>(1)	Why did GTE feel it necessary to change UCSB at all when it
>	appears that there were many numbers left in the current prefix?
>	9999 - 3800 = 6199 extensions left, right?

Not necessarily, see below.

>(2)	What does changing prefixes buy GTE?  As far as I know, UCSB
>	was the sole "owner" of the 961 prefix, although I had heard
>	rumours that Delco GM and Santa Barbara Research Center had
>	a couple of 961 phone lines that had something or other to
>	do with the university.

I have always heard that the 805-961 prefix was shared between UCSB,
SBRC, Delco and other companies with Centrex in the research park
area.

>(3)	If there is some kind of new magic box that GTE is installing
>	to handle special needs of the univeristy, why couldn't they
>	keep the 961 prefix and swap the lines from the old box to
>	the new box on August 4?

UCSB a couple of years ago replaced the Centrex service with a PBX.
At the time they were allowed to keep the old number block. I suspect
that the agreement at the time guaranteed the old numbers for a
minimum period, which has now expired, and that GTE now wants to
reclaim the old block either to expand other Centrexes in the area.

>(4)	If I call the university at 7:59am on August 4 using the 961
>	prefix, what will happen to my call at 8:00am?  If we had
>	caller ID out here, what would happen to an outgoing call?

I don't know whether they will be moving the trunks to a different
switch; if they do, the calls will drop (and there may actually be a
few seconds when the lines are dead). If the cutover is all software,
the calls will survive. I don't know if such cutovers are timed
exactly enough that you'd be able to test it by placing such a call.
(If the cutover actually happens 15 minutes later, your test would be
invalid).


Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer
CMC Rockwell  lars@CMC.COM