Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!cup.portal.COM!Phillip_M_Dampier
From: Phillip_M_Dampier@cup.portal.COM
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Local Calling Areas
Message-ID: <8805202137.1.12864@cup.portal.com>
Date: 20 May 88 01:09:36 GMT
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[+---------------
[| In Denver and Atlanta, businesses and residences alike can get flat
[| rates for the entire metro area (50 miles or so across).
[+---------------

[Yes, when I lived in Atlanta, it was said to have "the largest toll-free
[local calling area in the world".

Heh, it seems every telco on the planet wants to make this claim.  Rochester
Telephone Corporation in Rochester, New York makes the same claim.  A few
years ago, they made much over the fact that before the Bell Fiefdom broke
up, they were the largest independent telco on the planet.

City of Rochester (and bordering suburbs) residents can place calls to areas
like Kendall to the west and Sodus & Williamson, NY to the east, which is in
area code 315.  Interesting that we can make toll free calls to NY Telephone
numbers using the icky digital switches they use in more rural areas.  More
clicks than the analog phone systems NY Tel has also used.

To the south, we can reach communities such as Lima, NY and to the north, Lake
Ontario stops the calling area.  It is a huge local calling area for us, and
for $14.85 a month for residential service with touchtone, I'm not yelling.

Roch Tel's little empire is presently adapting to AT&T #5ESS switches in all
of their exchanges.  They are also buying up any little telcos in NY/PA/OH
that they can get their hands on.

So who has the largest local calling area?  Where are those mappers to tell
us!