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From: ndallen@contact.uucp (Nigel Allen)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Call Setup With Sprint
Message-ID: <15420@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 14 Dec 90 01:07:00 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 882, Message 6 of 9


drears@pica.army.mil (Dennis G. Rears (FSAC)) complains that call
set-up time on calls to Australia is too high.
 
This may not be Sprint's fault. The local telephone exchange is
probably causing some of the delay, because it only forwards the
dialled number to Sprint once it is convinced that all the digits have
been dialled.  This is not a problem with North American calls, since
U.S. and Canadian telephone numbers are all the same length, but for
overseas calls, the local switch waits until a few seconds have
elapsed since the last number was dialled (this is called waiting for
"time-out"). However, the local switch will recognize the # character
as meaning that you have finished dialling, and will forward the
number to Sprint immediately on receiving the #, assuming that you
have dialled a plausible number of digits.
 
(In other words, 011-44-71-xxx-xxxx # will go through, but 011-44-71 #
may be rejected by the local switch as being too short. I realize that
the example is for a number in London, England, not Australia.)
 
This is not specific to Sprint.  It should work with any long distance
carrier with overseas calling facilities (or, strictly speaking, it
should work with any sufficiently modern local switch, since you're
talking to the facilities of the local carrier, not to Sprint.)