Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: zippy@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Patrick Tufts)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Finding Your Own Phone Number
Message-ID: <12472@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 21 Sep 90 19:17:49 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Organization: Brandeis University Computer Science Dept
Lines: 24
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 669, Message 8 of 9


How can you find out the number of a given phone?  I seem to recall
that linesmen dial the operator and ask for a ringback.

What do you have to say to an operator to get the number of the line
you're calling on?  Are there any numbers you can call that will tell
you your own number (like how (700)555-4141 tells you your LD
carrier)?


Pat


[Moderator's Note: In nearly every telephone exchange there is some
number which will read back the number of the phone placing the call.
There is no standardization to this; the numbers are different
everywhere, and change frequently. They are always non-pub, of course.
I suppose you could always make a collect call from the phone in
question to a number you control, then examine your phone bill when it
arrives the next month to see whose call you agreed to pay for. The
linemen can call the test board, but there has to be some reasonable
excuse, such as a pending work order. It also helps if the test board
recognizes your name/voice. The most honest way to go about it would
be to ask the person who owns the phone, "what number is this?"  PAT]