Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!netsys!vector!nobody From: rnv@motsj1.UUCP (Ron Voss) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: FRG phone numbers Summary: what i know Message-ID: Date: 11 Oct 88 22:07:53 GMT References: Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Organization: Motorola Microcomputer Division, San Jose Ca. Lines: 35 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp (USENET Telecom Moderator) X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 8, issue 160, message 2 X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu (TELECOM Digest Coordinator) X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp (USENET Telecom Moderator) In article , c3pe!wb8foz@decuac.dec.com (David Lesher) writes: > While in Frankfurt last week I noted that phone numbers varied in > length from 4 to 10 digits, maybe more. The longer ones seemed > to be DID into PBXs. > How does the CO know when it has all the digits? Does it time > out, or do prefixes carry implicit lengths? Prefixes carry implicit lengths, mostly, although numbers can be "data sensitive". However, there are no prefixes as we know them, althought they technically exist. The "Post" doesn't advertise prefixes, and doesn't list or give out numbers in that way. For example, a phone number may be written 12 34 56 or 123 456 (Germany generally uses " " instead of "-" as a delimiter), whatever seems to be easier to remember, or however a particular person has always done it. Technically, all numbers beginning with the "hidden" prefix (in my example, you can't tell what it is: 1? 12? 123?) will be six digits long. I've seen phone numbers within an area code of four to eight digits. Area codes are two to four digits long. Generally, the shorter your phone number, the smaller your town, and, the shorter your area code, the larger your town. They don't use the British trick of having the target area code dependent on the caller's location. Large companies are often given a "prefix" of usually four digits. Then they do what they want, like 1234 0 for the switchboard and 1234 5678 for extensions, where internally the extension is 5678, just like here. The net will, as always, I hope, correct any factual errors. -- Ron Voss, Motorola Microcomputer Div hplabs!motsj1!rnv CIS 73647,752 408-991-7390 Opinions: My own