Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 02:56:27 PDT From: Linc Madison Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: German Telephone Unification 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 448, Message 5 of 10 Lines: 29 Well, the June, 1991 Oakland phone book has hit the streets, with a few notable things in it. First off, the expanded local calling area is covered, although they still distinguish between Zone 1 and Zone 2, even though the rates are identical. Second, the surcharge on calling card calls from payphones, which went into effect well before the April 1 cutoff date on the directory, is not mentioned in any way in the section about prices for calling card calls. In fact, in two different places, there are two different figures given for the surcharge; both are wrong if you're at a payphone. But anyhoo, the other thing I noticed is that in the International calling section, they still list "German Democratic Republic" and "Germany, Federal Republic of" as separate countries. (I forgot to check to see if "Wales" and "Tasmania" are still independent nations.) First of all, I think that Pacific Bell has had more than enough notice of the reunification of Germany that they could have made some mention of Germany and then listed "the area formerly the G.D.R." or something like that. Beyond that, though, what are the plans for bringing Germany under a single country code? Have the plans been finalized and a date set, or is it all still up in the air? It seems clearly unacceptable to have Berlin a united city in a unified German nation, but with two country codes. [apologies if this has been covered recently] Linc Madison = linc@tongue1.berkeley.edu = ucbvax!tongue1!linc