Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!hybrid!scifi!bywater!uunet!bu.edu!telecom-request From: contact!ndallen@utdoe.uucp (Nigel Allen) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: The Correct Way to Write Your Phone Number Message-ID: Date: 4 Mar 91 00:23:00 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: 52 Manchester Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Lines: 23 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 178, Message 1 of 10 In article roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes: > [...] A recording of an obviously French voice > gave me another number to call. What's odd (at least to my American > ears) was that the voice gave the new number as something like "area > code 212, telephone number xxx-xxxx", as if the area code was not to > be considered part of the phone number, but something extra, or as PAT > puts it, incidental. When a phone number has been changed to one in a new area code, I distinctly prefer an intercept announcement that precedes the area code with the words "area code" or "area". Otherwise, people will think that the initial three digits are a local prefix, and get confused by hearing seven more digits. Bell Canada intercept operators normally would pronounce a new number as "area 613 232-xxxx", but Bell Canada's automated intercept system just gives the number as 613 232-xxxx. Nigel Allen ndallen@contact.uucp