Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: "John R. Covert 22-Dec-1989 0755" Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: International Directory Assistance Message-ID: <2366@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 21 Dec 89 21:01:09 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 33 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 588, message 8 of 9 >> I know of no case where customers in one country can call the >> directory assistance number in another country. >Canada and the U.S. constitute an exception, both ways. I would >suspect that the sharing of a country code (or having a notional >country code that consists of another country's code plus more digits, >as with the Vatican) would tend to indicate a similar degree of >integration in other places. I'd be surprised if Liechtenstein and >Switzerland aren't treated as one country for telephonic purposes, for >instance. Yes, these sorts of things have never been treated as real international calls. In the case of CH and FL, although FL is a sovereign country, CH is responsible for the phone system. The Vatican isn't even separate from Rome; it's just a local phone number there. >Within the North American area (country code 1), however,, area code >809 covers a number of small countries. I just tried 1-809-555-1212 >and it gets intercepted. Are directory assistance calls from 809 to >here and between 809 and the U.S. also not allowed to be direct-dialed? The U.S. can call 809 555-1212; an operator in Jacksonville answers and routes the call to the correct directory assistance operator based on the destination. And you get charged if it's Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands; D.A. for the other locations in the Caribbean is free. I suspect the reason Canada can't dial 809 D.A. is that Canada never saw fit to dedicate an operator to splitting the traffic. /john