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From: dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Broken Phone While Out of Town
Message-ID: <14363@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 4 Nov 90 23:19:17 GMT
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Back in Volume 10, issue 758 (you mean I'm only ten days behind?), Ron
Heiby wrote, concerning his problems in reporting his home phone out
of order while he was out of town:

| I then called the Chicago IBT office back and spoke with someone else,
| explained the whole sequence, and received another phone number in 312
| which (she said) would connect me directly with IBT repair.  I dialed
| it and got nothing but some "click-clack" noises with about a 1 per
| second frequency for about 20 seconds, then silence.

| Well, my phone is fixed, now.  I guess I know that next time I want to
| report a phone out of order somewhere other than where I'm standing I
| should write a letter!

Pat Townson responded:

| [Moderator's Note: Here in 312/708 (except Centel) 611 translates into
| a seven digit number: 312-I forget the rest. David T, can you reply?  PAT]

When I moved from Illinois Bell's satrapy to Centel's I was absorbing
the front pages of Centel's directory.  It stated clearly that to call
repair service one should dial 611; from outside Centel's area (now it
should read "from a non-Centel phone" to allow for COCOTs and
cellulars) one should dial 698-9955 [312 being assumed; this was two
years before the 708 split, but it's in 708 now].  I thought, hmm,
gee, what if I fear something is wrong with my parents' Illinois Bell
service and want to report it?  All Illinois Bell could tell me was to
find an Illinois Bell phone and dial 611 or call someone with a
working Illinois Bell phone and ask him or her to dial 611.  There
were at the time four Illinois Bell coin phones within a quarter mile
of my home (the two nearest have since been replaced with COCOTs,
though), so I figured I'd have to walk over to one of them if I ever
needed to tell IBT about someone else's phone trouble.

About three months later I had difficulty calling another Centel
customer.  I dialed 611 to tell Centel about the other phone's
problems.  While I was on hold, their recording told me, if I was
reporting trouble with an Illinois Bell phone, to dial Illinois Bell
repair at 509-2510.  (It's still in 312.)

Interesting; another telco knows the number but IBT doesn't.  I've
since had to use that number twice (once to report a vandalized pay
phone, the other time for a reason I don't remember) and it got me
through to IBT Repair.  Is that the number Ron Heiby couldn't reach?

Centel now advertises two numbers for reaching their repair department
from outside their area: 708-698-9955 and 800-348-0833; but IBT has
the Bell System "We're *the* phone company" mentality and cannot admit
that there could possibly be a non-IBT phone to dial from.  Nope, not
a phone from a neighboring BOC (not even from their own sister
subsidiaries of Ameritech, Indiana Bell and Wisconsin Bell); not a
phone from a cellular provider (not even from Ameritech Mobile);
certainly not a phone served by an independent telco nor a COCOT!

So apparently 611 from IBT country in and around Chicago is translated
to however one dials +1 312 509 2510.  From Centel phones it is
translated to +1 708 698 9955 (yes, I double checked after permissive
dialing between the two area codes ended, and I did get put through
from area code 312, so the translation was updated).  A lot of COCOTs
have 611 as their repair number as well, translating it to the
procurer's ... er, provider's direct (and probably unpublished) number.

Now, what I don't understand about Ron's story is why his wife
couldn't pick up the line that worked and dial 611 from it to report
the non-functioning line, but that's a different matter from IBT's not
knowing its own repair number.


David Tamkin  Box 7002  Des Plaines IL  60018-7002  708 518 6769  312 693 0591
MCI Mail: 426-1818  GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN  CIS: 73720,1570   dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com