Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!bionet!hayes.ims.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Digit Overload in Dallas/Fort Worth Message-ID: <14549@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 9 Nov 90 21:32:43 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 34 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 806, Message 12 of 12 responding to Dave Close : >However, a zero or one prefix is only required when the call is a >toll call. What do you mean by "zero"? Pay phones in Delaware, Maryland, and nearby have instruction cards suggesting 0+ for LOCAL calls if you are out of change. The only difference among these cards is that if the area has NNX prefixes only, it'll say 0+number, but if the area has NXX prefixes it'll say 0+areacode+number. In Dallas/Fort Worth area, 214 has NXX prefixes and is just now being split to form 903, with Dallas metro area remaining in 214; 817 has NNX only as far as I know, but it has (right?) the same instructions for toll and 0+ as does 214, for the sake of area-wide uniformity (like "statewide uniformity" for 201/609 in New Jersey). In Washington DC area (now requiring areacode + 7D on local calls crossing areacode boundary, apparently similar to what you have in Dallas/Fort Worth area), at least on the pay phones you can optionally add the leading 1+; this, by the way, would help you out if you are bringing in a programmed phone from an area where the DC area was long distance. But you are saying I cannot put in the leading 1+ if the call in Dallas/Fort Worth area across areacode line is local. >I think that it is an overload on the leading digit for it to both >introduce an area code and distinguish toll calls. I'm not sure what you are talking about. With or without local calls across an area code boundary, you should NOT have your own or nearby area codes as prefixes! This reduces confusion for advertisements, word of mouth, etc. going across areacode border, and makes it possible to drop the leading 1+ for out-of-areacode local calls which can no longer be just seven digits.