Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: shad04@ccu.umanitoba.ca Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: 800 Numbers and Canada Message-ID: <2432@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 26 Dec 89 17:18:00 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: shad04@ccu.umanitoba.ca Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Lines: 47 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 597, message 3 of 8 In article <2391@accuvax.nwu.edu> Gary L Dare writes: >X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 591, message 6 of 8 >In X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 588, Sam Ho writes: [among other stuff,] >>in Canada, (cut to shot of volunteers in Vancouver) call 112-800-something. >That's not unusual; for some strange reason, 1-800 numbers inside >British Columbia have to be prefixed with 112-800, not 1-800. I don't >know why, but when they list domestic numbers on television or >whatever, there is always a seperate B.C. number like this. So if >your Canadian PBS viewers are in British Columbia, then they'll have >to use their BC Tel to get at the operators. That was true several years ago, but BC Tel changed the entire province over to the "standard" 1+ dialing in 1985, just in time for Vancouver's Expo '86. Prior to mid-1985, directory assistance was 113, repair was 114, and (at least in my exchange, 604-853) the number that got your own number spoken back to you was 117, and the pulse/tone speed/frequency test number was 110 (I'm 92% certain of the last two). Now we have 411, 611, 211, and 311, respectively, just like everybody else (except Washington :-) I missed the original article (or maybe it just hasn't arrived yet :-), so ignore the rest if I sound incoherent. I know the Seattle, WA PBS station (KCTS) has an office in Vancouver, BC to handle its BC subscribers (apparently quite a few). If there are two 800 numbers shown, one is likely for the Seattle office, the other for the Vancouver office. (Aside: Is it possible to have a single 800 number route you to the closest Canadian or American office depending on where you're calling?) KCTS would definitely know about the BC change to 1+ dialing, so maybe you were discussing WTVS, the Detroit PBS station that's just became available to some Vancouver cable subscribers. That's probably what was in the original article, right? So this *was* rather incoherent, wasn't it? I'd better quit while I'm ahead... CdnNet: shad04@ccu.umanitoba.ca Compu$erve: 72365,306 FidoNet: Dan Fandrich at 1:153/508