Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!lll-winken!telecom-request From: goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Surprise!! Message-ID: Date: 4 Jun 91 18:54:35 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA 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 423, Message 12 of 13 In article , david@cs.uow.edu.au (David E A Wilson) writes... (Actually, Pat sez:) > [Moderator's Note: They measure from one central office to another, as > the crow flies. Any central offices within eight miles of the central > office serving you in any direction make up your local calling area. In some cases they use the location of the CO, but in others, they bill to a "rate center" at a fictitious location. This is useful to the telco when "contiguous exchanges" get a lower rate than nearby non-contiguous exchanges. By splitting one CO into multiple exchanges, they reduce the local/cheap radius! New England Telephone does this a lot. Medford, Everett and Melrose MA are all exchanges, with their own billing locations, but they don't have CO's; all are served by the Malden CO (which has a lot of prefixes). Likewise, Charlestown, MA is an exchange served by the Boston-Bowdoin CO, whose other codes are in the Boston Central exchange. Dover (in 508) by the Needham CO (in 617), etc. In some other cases, a CO has different prefix codes for different localities but they're billed as one. Mattapan served by Milton and West Medford by Arlington are examples. Hence the distinction between the CO serving area (which may be part of an exchange, or more than one exchange) and exchange area itself (which is a line on a map). Confusing, eh? Fred R. Goldstein Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice: +1 508 952 3274 Do you think anyone else on the planet would share my opinions, let alone a multi-billion dollar corporation?