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From: wright@ais.org (Carl Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Change in Dialing Procedures to Mexico Effective Today
Message-ID: <74385@bu.edu.bu.edu>
Date: 9 Feb 91 02:51:21 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 106, Message 10 of 11


In article 16697 S. Srinivasan writes in response to the news that
the two area codes in Mexico disappeared:

> On a related note, why didn't Mexico choose to go with the "Gringo
> Peeg" Bell System, and opted instead for the European one?  With the
> onset of free-trade (hopefully), this might be a severe detraction.  I
> suspect a call to Mexico would be routed to one of the International
> Switching Centers (AT&T-speak) - and where's the closest one to San
> Diego - Atlanta?!!!

If I understand him correctly, I think he has misunderstood several things:

1) Call routing and especially costing has not changed with the
elimination of the area codes and the need to use the 52 country code.
The 52 country code has worked for longer than I know and was
necessary with the area codes in place to reach lesser known Mexican
call destinations.

2) The issue of free-trade is especially interesting since
Southwestern Bell, France Telecom, and a Mexican group have purchased
TelMex for several billion dollars. The phone number issue doesn't
relate at all to the present trade policies of Mexico. They are
already showing a significant amount of openess to their northern
neighbor.

3) Is the country code numbering plan what you mean by the European
system?  If it is then, you probably didn't realize that "1" is the
country code for the U.S. and Canada. The USSR is the only other
single digit (7) country code and that may change with the continuing
political changes.

I'm biased. I've been helping setup cellular billing operations in
Mexico City this year and I'm impressed by the people and the task
they have before them.  They have all kinds of things that a gringo
would think are screwy, but they are working to fix the bad ones and
keep the good ones.


Carl Wright                     | Lynn-Arthur Associates, Inc.
Internet: wright@ais.org        | 2350 Green Rd., #160
Voice: 1 313 995 5590 EST       | Ann Arbor, MI 48105