Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1991 19:55:03 GMT From: andreap@ms.uky.edu (Peach) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: It is Now Official: 416 to be Split Into 905 Message-ID: Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu 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 288, Message 4 of 13 Lines: 53 elroy!grian!alex@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Alex Pournelle) writes: > dave@westmark.westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: >> In article , TONY@mcgill1.bitnet (Tony >> Harminc) writes: >> The plan is to use seven digits for all intra-NPA calls, and 1 + ten >> digits for all inter-NPA calls. No timeouts, no ambiguity, and no >> sure way to tell the difference between local and toll calls >> intra-NPA. Any NXX number can then be used as an area code, and as an >> exchange prefix within any area code. In the interest of user- >> friendliness, Bellcore recommends not assigning the same NXX as an >> area code and as a prefix within the area code. (So we won't have a >> 201-201 central office in Northern NJ.) > At least in Pac*Swell's southern area, this isn't QUITE true: there > *IS* a 213-213 exchange; actually, a "psuedo-exchange"; the Big Book > of Prefixes (Higdon will doubtless give out the real name:-) for the > L.A. LATA lists 213-213 as "Pseudo-POTS for local 800 service" or > something. The indication I got was that it wasn't a "public" > exchange, but one for phones the Great Unwashed should never see. > Yes, there was also a 213-818, an 818-818 and an 818-213 as I recall. I am just a novice at this stuff, but are you saying they are changing the rules about area codes? Prefixes that have a center digit of one or zero can no longer be assumed to be an area code? Is this a nationwide change? Harold G. Peach, Jr. Internet: hgpeach@ca.uky.edu 252 Ag. Engineering Bldg., U.Ky. Packet Radio: N4FLZ@KF4NB.KY.USA.NA Lexington, KY 40546-0276 Phone: (606) 257-3335 [Moderator's Note: The rules about *area codes* are going to change in a few years when area codes can have other than zero or one as their second digit. The rule about the third digit of an area code having to be two through nine has already changed. Now we see a limited number of zeros as the third digit in area codes, but you still never see a third digit of one. It was *prefixes* in the past which never had zero or one in the second digit. And several years ago, a prefix never had zero as the third digit; nor as a rule were prefixes duplicated in adjacent area codes, or similar-looking area codes placed adjacent to each other. Big cities got 'short pull' area codes and small towns got 'long pull' area codes. The explosive growth in telephone services requiring individual numbers in the past few years has forced the old rules to be abandoned. We can still safely say if the second and third digits are both one, or both zero, the three digits make up some special service code rather than an area code or a prefix. PAT]