Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: "DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN)" Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: 1-555-1212 for Local Directory Assistance? Message-ID: <10558@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 8 Aug 90 06:37:03 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 40 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 548, Message 2 of 11 Hmmm ... In Connecticut you MUST dial 1+411 or 1+555-1212 for DA. SNET (Southern New England Telephone) tells its customers to use 1-411 for state-wide DA, but both 1-411 and 1-555-1212 work. I think they make you dial 1+ so that PBX's (and the like) can block out such calls. What's odd is that SNET required 1+411 dialing long before they started charging for DA (I guess that was about 2 years ago), so I wonder why they forced customers to dial 1+411 even before anyone would want to block calls there.? BTW, in New York City, the payphones and phone books suggest the following DA dialing procedure: 411- local calls within the area code (212, 718, or soon 917) 555-1212 - calls within the area code but not local (but almost ALL calls in each of the area codes are local, except to/from Staten Island or the Bronx in some limited cases...) 1+Area Code+555-1212 - calls to another area code. In actuality, you can use any of them, and DA will usually give you the number, as I have never been told "hang up and dial the CORRECT number, please", when using 411 instead of Area Code+555-1212, etc. My favorite place for directory assistance: Greenwich, CT, which is served by New York Tel. You can get FREE CT DA as well as FREE NY DA from payphones there... My worst place(s): Louisiana and Oregon, which have the NERVE to charge 50 cents for ANY DA call ... and they never have an up-to-date phone book around! (BTW, I've dialed 0+411 from New Orleans and got the Southern Bell Calling Card system ... I entered my calling card #, but was never billed ... Hmmmmm.) Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet