Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!netsys!vector!nobody From: westmark!dave@rutgers.edu (Dave Levenson) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: European variable length numbers Message-ID: Date: 10 Oct 88 01:29:12 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 19 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp (USENET Telecom Moderator) X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 8, issue 156, message 4 X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu (TELECOM Digest Coordinator) X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp (USENET Telecom Moderator) In article , covert%covert.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (John R. Covert) writes: ... > Europeans think we are weird for insisting on a fixed length numbering plan. While variable-length numbering plans are convenient for number assignments, they are very expensive for the PTT or telephone company. When you are dialing a variable-length number, your local central office must send it to the distant office one digit at a time. This means that you occupy an inter-office digit-sender for as long as it takes you to finish dialing. In the Bell System, the fixed-length number is registered in the originating central office, buffered, and then sent as a complete address to the far end. This reduces occupancy of the interoffice sender equipment, requiring far less such equipment per central office. -- Dave Levenson Westmark, Inc. The Man in the Mooney Warren, NJ USA {rutgers | att}!westmark!dave