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From: wmartin@ALMSA-1.ARPA (Will Martin -- AMXAL-RI)
Newsgroups: mod.telecom
Subject: 800-number queries
Message-ID: <8611250934.AA27171@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Wed, 19-Nov-86 11:34:00 EST
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Posted: Wed Nov 19 11:34:00 1986
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I know we've discussed the significance of the 3rd digit in 800 numbers
("N" in 800-xxN-xxxx) before (I think the consensus was that "2" there
means "intrastate 800 number", right?); I was wondering if there is any
particular geographical distribution on the prefixes themselves ("NNN"
in 800-NNN-xxxx)? This was inspired by hearing an IBM commercial that
told listeners to call "1-800-IBM-nnnn" (I forget the last 4 digits).
There are other special word-code 800 numbers like 1-800-USA-RAIL for
AMTRAK, of course. 

Do firms that get these numbers have to set up answering or call-forwarding 
services in any specific geographic areas to get the letter-coded numbers
they want? Or is the 800 service completely divorced from any geographic
constraints as far as number assignments go?

Other 800-related questions: If you have an Alternate Long-Distance
Service as your default outgoing LD service and you call an 800 number
by dialing 1-800-xxx-xxxx, what happens to that call? Does the ALDS
actually use its own facilities to route and transmit that call over to
AT&T, doing work for which they never will get any pay (or do they
charge the caller something even for an 800 call, or would AT&T pay them
something?), or does the local Central Office facility automatically
route all 800 calls to AT&T so that they never touch the ALDS carrier's
lines, or what?

(I've never had any service other than AT&T, so I never tried this back
before Equal Access when you called a local number to get to a LD
service like MCI -- when you did that and then called an 800 number
instead of a regular long distance number, would the call go through?
Would you be charged for the time for that 800 call? [Yes, I know it
would be a silly thing to do -- I just thought somebody might have tried
it as an experiment.])

Regards,
Will Martin
wmartin@ALMSA-1.ARPA   (on USENET try ...!seismo!wmartin@ALMSA-1.ARPA )