Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!bu.edu!telecom-request From: yoram@cs.columbia.edu (Yoram Eisenstadter) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Large Local Calling Areas (was Re: NXX Count) Message-ID: Date: 26 Feb 91 18:03:04 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: Columbia University Department of Computer Science Lines: 34 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 164, Message 3 of 13 In article scott@huntsai.boeing.com writes: > arnold%audiofax.com@mathcs.emory.edu (Arnold Robbins) writes: >> The Atlanta LATA is apparently the largest free calling area in >> the world... > This is true. To give an example, when I lived in Atlanta I was able > to make local calls to places that were a good hour's drive away. The > local calling area spans several counties. Similarly, New York City's local calling area spans five counties (each borough of NYC is a separate county), and one would have to drive for an hour (on highways, in optimal traffic) to get from where I live in eastern Queens to the southern parts of Staten Island. The NYC local calling area also spans two area codes (212 and 718), and will soon span three area codes (a separate one, 917, for pagers, cell phones, data lines, etc. is coming in 1992). NYC wasn't always a single local calling area; I remember several years ago there were parts of Queens that were local to Manhattan (25 cents from a payphone) and some that were not (40 cents from a payphone). I think that the PUC mandated uniform local calling rates throughout NYC when the 212/718 split occured. Note that geographically, NYC is only a small part of the LATA that also encompasses Nassau and Suffolk counties (area code 516), Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties (914), and the part of Connecticut (203) that is served by NY Telephone. Y