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From: mjs@mozart.att.com (Martin J Shannon)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Enterprise Numbers? Zenith Numbers?
Message-ID: <2184@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 14 Dec 89 18:26:21 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 575, message 2 of 13


In article <2121@accuvax.nwu.edu> merlyn@iwarp.intel.com (Randal Schwartz) 
writes:

>In article <1966@accuvax.nwu.edu> somebody writes:
Stuff about 411 & 611 in the northwest USA.

But what *I*'d never heard of is referred to in Patrick's moderatorial
note:

>[Moderator's Note: Hah! *He* thinks 611 gives calling-number-ID! Here
>in Chicago we know it reaches the Illinois Bell Repair Service. And
>for many years, 211 reached the Long Distance Operator for 90 percent
>of the subscribers, while 811 reached Long Distance for the other 10
>percent or so. And what we used to call Enterprise numbers *he*
>probably called Zenith numbers.  Just a local yokel myself! :) PT]

Well, I've spent all my (phone-aware) life in either Staten Island
(now 718), and northern NJ (201), and I've never heard of either
Enterprise *or* Zenith numbers.  What are they?

 
Marty Shannon; AT&T Bell Labs; Liberty Corner, NJ, USA
(Affiliation is given for identification only:
I don't speak for them; they don't speak for me.)

[Moderator's Note: Enterprise and Zenith were the same difference.
Some telcos used one name; other telcos used the other. These numbers
were the granddaddy of 800 service. In mostly manual, pre-dial-direct
times, companies offered Enterprise xxxx or Zenith xxxx numbers as a
way to induce customers to call them. They were automatic reverse
billing numbers, functioning just like 800 numbers do today. You would
raise the operator, and ask for Enterprise xxxx. The operator would
consult with Rate & Route to find the 'real' number (remember that
phrase from the past few days here?), and she would connect the call.
Getting permission from the called party to accept the charges was not
necessary. Like 800 numbers today, the old fashioned style could be
set up to accept local, regional, intrastate, interstate or
international calls, or various combinations. Believe it or not, there
are a few companies still listed in the Chicago phone book with
Enterprise numbers, but they are few and far between. In the early
1970's, I had Enterprise 5479, which rang my office phone, WEbster
9-4600.  The charges came on the regular long distance phone bill.  PT]