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From: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Running Out of Area Codes, and How to Dial Long Distance
Message-ID: <2495@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 30 Dec 89 20:58:03 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 602, message 5 of 12


The dial-1-for-money distinction was lost in many parts of the U.S.
long ago.  Many cities, notably New York and Los Angeles, have
multiple area codes for local calls.  Even here in Boston, you dial 1
for long distance except that there are a lot of exceptions where you
dial 1+number or 1+npa+number but it's local anyway.  What is a free
call depends greatly on what kind of service you have, a call that
costs nothing on one of my lines can cost 26 cents on the other (which
has cheaper monthly service).  Also, as I've noted before, there are
places in New Jersey where you can dial any of a local intra-lata
call, a local inter-lata call, a toll intra-lata call or a toll
inter-lata call with seven digits.

Dialing 1+area code for intra-NPA calls is a gross hack and is
unlikely in the long run to retain a useful distinction between free
and toll calls, although it does let them delay replacing some of
those old SxS exchanges.  Perhaps we need home COCOTs that tell you
when you dial how much you're spending.


Regards,
John Levine, johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl