Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: lfd@lcuxlq.att.com (Leland F Derbenwick) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter' Message-ID: <15574@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 21 Dec 90 14:41:26 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 42 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 896, Message 5 of 7 In article <15541@accuvax.nwu.edu>, I wrote (and the moderator commented): > Apparently, neither "Puzzled Bill" nor our Moderator has ever lived in > an area where an initial "1" meant _any_ toll call. ... > [Moderator's Note: That's right, I have never lived in such a place. > Here in Chicago, what is local to me is toll to a person a few miles > away but still within the city. There is no longer any local free > calling zone which takes in the whole city. We never could have used > the '1 means toll charge' arrangement here since who is to say ahead > of time which prefixes would have a '1' in front. The difference > between a free call and toll call here is entirely dependent on which > central office area you live in. PAT] That's exactly the sort of situation where 1+7 digits can be very helpful. You've stopped off at a friend's house, and decide to call another friend. Both of them are in _your_ local calling area, but friend two is (unbeknownst to you) a toll call from friend one. With just a seven-digit number, you only find out that it was a toll call when ex-friend one tells you to pay up. With 1 + 7 digits, you know immediately: the 7-digit call gets a "your call cannot be completed as dialed" message. If you still want to call, you put the "1" in front, but you _know_ that it's being charged by the minute. (Admittedly, this sort of thing was a _lot_ more important back when I was a teenager. :-) So how you have to dial a given number will vary depending which central office's area you're in, but it always is based on what's a toll call from there. Perhaps it's an east/west split? This is how it was in Southern New England Telephone territory (Connecticut) and it's just being changed in Pennsylvania. But when I lived in California, it took me a while to get used to _not_ dialing a 1 first. Speaking strictly for myself, Lee Derbenwick, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Warren, NJ lfd@cbnewsm.ATT.COM or !att!cbnewsm!lfd