Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: The Washington Post Reports on Local Calling Changes Message-ID: <11211@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 22 Aug 90 15:01:23 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 587, Message 8 of 11 I just now got to May 4, 1990 microfilm for the {Washington (DC) Post}. Page A-1 has article (continued inside) about the Oct. 1, 1990 local-calling change (must then use area code on DC-area local calls which cross area code boundaries). Comments I gleaned (opinions and examples are only from that article): "Whether the change will weaken the psychological ties among city and suburbs remains to be seen." People often do NOT take such changes kindly, but resistance is usually short-lived. In DC area, you generally know if you are calling DC, Md., or Va.; but in Mass. when 508 was formed, you had to learn the new code by town. C&P expects that if growth continues, Md. will need new area code in several years, but there currently is no decision about this. Under the new way of making local calls, someone living in Anacostia area (DC) could have the same 7D number as someone living in Oxon Hill (Md.), just a mile away. [ <-- note by me: this obviously puts an end to use of area code 202 for points not right in DC proper.] Up to now, DC area has had the "privilege" (since the 1950s, with quotes mine) of making local calls without area code; however, in Manhattan (NYC), you routinely use 718 area code to make local call to Brooklyn. There is a worldwide proliferation of phone numbers, and networks have to be reconfigured to allow more phone numbers (the article specifically mentions the London split occurring right around then). Article apparently came out before the announcement about Pentagon being put in 703 (Pentagon is physically in Virginia, but had been in area 202, NOT in 703). I should also mention that leading 1+ is cited as OPTIONAL in those local calls crossing NPA line. You are REQUIRED to use it for toll calls.