Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!killer!vector!nobody From: mcgp1!donn@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Donn Pedro) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Excuses instead of info Message-ID: Date: 6 Jan 89 16:23:12 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 29 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 7, message 3 In article , hp-sdd!rog@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Roger Haaheim) writes: > Back in the good old days...one could dial a special number, > hang up, and the dialing phone would ring; some kind of > echo. It was used by phonefolks who came to fix the phone, > to check to see if it was working. They had no problem > telling the customer what that number was so the customer > could dial back to him/herself. Why has that capability > become proprietary? I know it's still done, but when I > ask...excuses, but no number. How come? Because while i worked for Pacific Bell in California those numbers were limited to a very few per central office. If I gave out the ringback codes to everyone who asked it would not be available for our use for testing. People used it to busy out their phones so as not to be disturbed. How convenient! They did not want to disconnect their phone so it would ring like they were not home. So thats why you werent privvy to that info. Its proprietary information necessary to the function of the repair tech and gets abused by the general public when it gets out. Former phone man, Donn F Pedro {the known world}!uw-beaver!tikal!mcgp1!donn -------------------------------------------------------------- "You talk the talk. Do you walk the walk?"