Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: merlyn@iwarp.intel.com (Randal L. Schwartz) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter' Message-ID: <15575@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 21 Dec 90 16:18:41 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: "Randal L. Schwartz" Organization: Stonehenge; netaccess via Intel, Beaverton, Oregon, USA Lines: 63 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 6 of 7 In article <15542@accuvax.nwu.edu>, merlyn@iwarp (Randal L. Schwartz) writes: | (I'm still baffled at what the "1 means long distance" people do when | a differing area code is *not* long distance. Do you dial the "1" or | not? Around here, if it's a different area code, it's definitely long | distance.) | [Moderator's Note: Is Portland, OR to Vancouver, WA a long distance | call? What about Troutdale, OR to Camas, WA? What about Ontario, OR | to Fruitland, ID? And yes, we dial 1 whenever we change area codes, | even though several suburban 708 points are local to me in 312, and | are part of my 'eight mile from CO to CO' local free calling area. PAT] Yes, Portland OR to Vancouver WA has *always* been an LD call. And Troutdale OR to Camas WA (and I suspect Ontario to Fruitland, although I don't know that for a fact). I mean, it makes sense to me. It crosses an Area Code Boundary, therefore I have to dial 1, therefore it is long distance! (The thought of someday having no correlation between 1 and long distance still shocks me as bizarre.) A while back, there was talk of putting Vancouver in the 503 area code so that we Oregonians could call it locally. And, in another message, you speak of "local to me is LD to some guy next to me" as a justification for "why 1 means toll is dumb". That happens all the time in Portland. I can call local from Beaverton to Portland. Portland can call local to Gresham and Oregon City. But it's LD for me from Beaverton to Gresham or Oregon City. So the people in Portland know they can call Beaverton, Gresham, or OC directly, and the people in the suburbs have learned more or less what "too far away" is. I'm *glad* I have the "1 means toll", or I'd probably be shocked by my phone bill each time I had to return a call to an unknown number. (They've added a lot of prefixes in the last five years.) "Hmm... return this call to 526-9922. Wonder where it is ... 5-2-6-9-9-2-2 ... [boop bop beep... please dial 1]. Aha. Long distance. Better call it from my client's phone. :-)". Pat, what do you do when returning a call? Do you have all the local prefixes memorized? Do you call the operator each time for a name-place and LD rate? See, it's much simpler here in Oregon. :-) Just another native Portlander, Randal L. Schwartz, Stonehenge Consulting Services (503)777-0095 on contract to Intel's iWarp project, Beaverton, Oregon, USA, Sol III merlyn@iwarp.intel.com ...!any-MX-mailer-like-uunet!iwarp.intel.com!merlyn [Moderator's Note: Surprisingly, I do know a few hundred 312/708/815 prefixes in my head. But until your call goes to somewhere outside northern Illinois there is no 'toll charge' as such. Everything here is northern Illinois is rated as 'minutes of use'. Local calls -- that is, calls within your switching center and the switching center immediatly next to yours on any side make up your local 'free' calling area. Regardless of the total minutes used, you are charged only about +/- five cents for the call. Calls to other switching centers in northern Illinois are timed, and 'minutes of use' cost anywhere three or four cents per minute. When you get your bill, you see the total number of minutes tallked during the month. PAT]