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From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: 976- and 900- Phone Numbers
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Date: 26 Aug 90 01:33:31 GMT
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Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
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"Marc T. Kaufman" <kaufman@neon.stanford.edu> writes:

> This thread, on the similarity of 900 numbers to 800 numbers, with
> billing, raised the following question: Is there a POTS number for the
> 900 number?  If so, what happens if you call the POTS numbers directly
> instead of using the 900 prefix (billing-wise)?

To my knowledge POTS numbers are not used for 900 service. I am
familiar with two types: Pac*Bell and LD carrier. In the case of
Pac*Bell, 900 service can only be called from within the LATA. The IP
must locate its equipment within the physical service area of a
particular CO that issues the 900 lines. In the case of the San
Francisco LATA, a 900 IP must locate his equipment within the area
served by the "Bush/Pine" central office. This just happens to be the
financial district of SF, so a lot of office buildings are picking up
some extra bucks leasing basement space to IPs. It is not uncommon to
see a bunch of IBM clones lined up on a shelf in the basement of a
large office building. In any event, these lines have no POTS number
assignment that can be called from an ordinary phone.

The other type of 900 service involves dedicated lines from the
carrier. Telesphere, AT&T (Megacom), and others will deposit a T-span
in your facility which will break down into the requisite 900
circuits.  The lines, since they don't even come through the LEC, have
no POTS assignment.


        John Higdon         |   P. O. Box 7648   |   +1 408 723 1395
    john@bovine.ati.com     | San Jose, CA 95150 |       M o o !


[Moderator's Note: John, are you positive 900's are never translated
into POTS at the final destination? I'm almost certain a couple of the
talk lines here can be reached on 312-702 numbers. In fact, didn't we
have a message here in the Digest more than a year ago where someone
said there ought to be a 'handy lookup table' showing the POTS version
of the 900 numbers?  Most are done like you describe them, though. PAT]