Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: David Lewis <nvuxr!deej@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Running Out of Area Codes, and How to Dial Long Distance
Message-ID: <2561@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 3 Jan 90 15:55:30 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Lines: 54
Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 4, message 6 of 8


In article <2486@accuvax.nwu.edu>, msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:

> The thing that most distresses me about this whole
> area-code-exhaustion business is that it'll mean that we'll LOSE the
> possibility of a leading 1 ACTUALLY meaning, as it still does where I
> am, "long distance".

However... the distinction between "local" and "long distance" is
becoming more and more vague.  *Generally*, the distinction is useful
because long distance service is measured (pay for each minute), and
local service is unmeasured (a flat fee gets you unlimited minutes of
calling).

As time passes, though, more and more telcos are moving more and more
in the direction of local measured service.  (Just ask Patrick...)
Plus, marketing organizations come up with a near-infinite number of
"local calling areas", "extended calling areas", "message rate
service", "low usage message rate service", etcetera, etcetera,
etcetera.

So a leading 1 could indicate "long distance".  But should this mean
"measured service call"?  "Outside local calling area call"?
Something else?

The North American Numbering Plan is a *numbering* plan.  It provides
an unambiguous syntax for *numbering* -- not for cost of calls, or for
billing method, or for marketing distinctions.

Yes, it would be nice to know, as you are making a call, whether that
call will cost you a flat amount, an amount proportional to the length
of the call, or whether it's covered in your normal monthly bill.  It
would also be nice to know, in real time, how much that call is
costing you.  But I think that "1+" is not an appropriate solution.

> Now, finally, my question.  Can anyone comment on the relative
> prevalence of the four syntaxes that I have called 1, 2, 3, and 4 in
> North America, or better yet, actually provide a list of what areas
> use what syntax?

Of course not -- Why should I answer the question you asked when I can
answer another one?

Seriously, I doubt that anyone can completely answer the question.  I
can tell you the "recommended" method (1+10D for calls outside the
home NPA; 7D for calls within the home NPA), but this is another case
where the recommendation is one sentence and the exceptions would fill
a good-sized book...


David G Lewis					...!bellcore!nvuxr!deej
	(@ Bellcore Navesink Research & Engineering Center)
			"If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower."