Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Sat, 8 Jun 91 13:13:46 -0700 From: Steve Forrette Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Pacific Bell Local Calling Area Expansion Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest 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 440, Message 10 of 10 Lines: 38 I have an interesting report on how Pacific Bell implemented the recent local calling area expansion on my exchange. I just moved, and am now on 916-983. The expansion made a big difference for this area, as a lot of businesses/friends that people around here have to call were previously just outside the local calling area. As of 4:30pm on Friday, May 31, I noticed that the change had already taken effect. Calls to numbers in the 9-12 mile range (previously Zone 2, now Zone 1 "local") no longer required a preceeding "1", and in fact went to an error message if you tried to use the 1. I wondered how much automated equipment would not work properly for awhile because of this. Just think how many monitored alarm dialers would not work, among other things. This is particularly important, as even thought advance notice was given by Pacific Bell, there would be no way for an alarm company to provide uninterrupted service unless all customers' units were reprogrammed at precisely the moment that Pacific Bell made the change, which wasn't even at the published time of midnight on June 1. The interesting part is that by the evening of Monday, June 3, the (optional) 1 was again allowed. Calls would complete with or without the 1. Further investgation revealed that ALL local calls would allow the 1, even those that had never been toll. So, I can now dial ANY number in 916 by using a preceeding 1. Toll calls still require it, though. Since this change was not made until a couple of days after the official cutover, I wonder if Pacific Bell made the change as the result of a storm of complaints from all sorts of people complaining about things that dial not working right, and the time required to make the change. I assume that allowing 1 for local calls will not last forever, and is being done as an interim solution only, but only time will tell. Steve Forrette, forrette@cory.berkeley.edu