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From: irvin@northstar105.dartmouth.edu
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: *-Prefixed Calls on Cellular Phones: Uniformly Coded? Free?
Message-ID: <telecom11.357.6@eecs.nwu.edu>
Date: 14 May 91 04:42:47 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 357, Message 6 of 10

In TELECOM Digest V11 #347, Mark Seiden writes:

> I am curious (yellow) about * prefixed calls on cellular phones.
> Has anyone got a list?  Are they uniform across service providers? (fat
> chance) ... I noticed that some of the California providers have
> traffic information lines, etc.
 
> [Moderator's Note:  In many large urban areas 911 won't work correctly
> from cell phones -- at least the dispatchers cannot get a reading on
> your location. Here in Chicago, *999 gets the Minutemen, a division of
> the Illinois State Police who handle expressway and interstate highway
> duty. 911 gets a recording saying to call the operator to report the
> emergency. And 911 is never 'free' ... to the caller, yes, but the
> charges are always reversed to the emergency agency, at least from
> landline phones. I assume cellular is the same where 911 is available,
> such as New Orleans.   PAT] 

Along the Interstates in North Carolina (in Cellular Areas) are signs
that tell Cellular users to dial *HP for the Highway Patrol.

Plus in some city (I can't remember which now), there was a radio
station that advertised it's Cellular Traffic number as *WXXX (or
what-ever its call letters were), this rang at the main switchboard
for the radio station (used to report accidents and traffic jams).  It
was free from all Cellular telephones, don't know about roamers.  Not
surprisingly, the radio station advertised the two Cellular carriers
constantly (I assume in trade for this *-number).


Tim Irvin