Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: irvin@northstar105.dartmouth.edu (Tim Irvin) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number Message-ID: Date: 20 Feb 91 13:03:09 GMT Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 43 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 140, Message 6 of 8 Originator: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu "Bernard F. Collins" writes: > I discovered some time ago that in the Baltimore area (301), one could > find out the number of most phones by dialing 811 or 311 (I forget > which.) After dialing, I would hear some funny clicks and then a VERY > faint voice that would recite my phone number. I just moved from N.C. Southern Bell (at least in Asheville, NC) used 200 (just 200) to get the phone number -- I once saw a repair man doing this. After dialing the 2-0-0, the line would be absolutely silent (just as if it was waiting for more digits) for ten to fifteen seconds, then a few clicks, and finally the familiar DA voice read my phone number off to me. I once tried to dial 200 from two different lines at the same time, I got a busy signal from one of them (after the ten to fifteen second wait), leading me to believe they were only set-up to handle one call at a time (at least in my exchange - which was the smallest one in the city). Prior to this "200" business, I overheard a repair man call the Operator and say "T and I please", or maybe it was "TNI please". So I tried it when he left, and sure enough the Operator told me my phone number. A few months later I tried it again and was firmly told to "Speak with your supervisor, that code has changed!!!" In Knoxville, TN (BELLSouth territory also -- but South Central Bell is the BOC), 200 didn't work. I could never figure out what the secret code might be there -- I went through all the X00 combinations I could think of. On a slightly different subject: One time in Knoxville, while getting my phone line fixed, the repair man dialed some number, hung up and the phone rang back. In Asheville, NC that was accomplished by dialing the phone's telephone number and hanging up. But I had never figured out how to do it in Knoxville. So I asked the guy what he dialed. "Sorry sir but we are not allowed to give out that information." "Why not?" "If customers start doing this, it would jam our equipment." Kind of a feeble excuse I thought. Tim Irvin Project NORTHSTAR Dartmouth College