Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!bu.edu!telecom-request From: hansm@cs.kun.nl (Hans Mulder) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: International 800 Numbers? (was Re: Evolving Phone Number) Message-ID: Date: 26 Feb 91 18:50:30 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 35 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 4 of 13 In article david@cs.uow.edu.au (David E A Wilson) writes: > We can call special six digit international 800 numbers. Are you sure international 800 numbers exist today? If so, why do televised ads aiming at an international audience contain those screens full of national 800 numbers, when a single international 800 number would do the job? (I was about to say ``Look at any of those Euro-XXX channels'', but I guess David can't receive those in Australia.) It was my impresssion that the idea of international 800 number had occurred to the PTTs only recently and that it was still years away. > Is it just coincidence that most countries auto-reverse charge numbers start > with either 800/008 or is there an international standard? For what it's worth, auto-reverse charge numbers in the Netherlands start with 06-0 or 06-4. Have a nice day, Hans Mulder hansm@cs.kun.nl [Moderator's Note: Some 800 numbers are international, but relatively few in comparison to the total. The European versions of 'USA Direct' operating in this country (allowing residents of other countries visiting here to 'call home' and speak with an operator in their home country in their native language, just like USA Direct in reverse) all have 800 numbers assigned to them. And, there are a few others. PAT]