
From telecom-request@delta.eecs.nwu.edu  Thu Aug 24 18:43:22 1995
by
1995
18:43:22 -0400
telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 24 Aug 1995 14:04:13 -0500
1995
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To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu


TELECOM Digest     Thu, 24 Aug 95 14:04:00 CDT    Volume 15 : Issue 356

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Seven Digits Across NPA Lines, 1+ And All That (John Levine)
    Re: Seven Digits Across NPA Lines (Stan Schwartz)
    Re: Seven Digits Across NPA Lines (Al Varney)
    Re: Seven Digits Across NPA Lines (Matthew P. Downs)
    AT&T Moving Into Local Exchange Market (Neeraj Vora)
    International Plus North American Area Codes (Richard Shockey)
    Re: Bell Canada Calling Cards (Mark Williston)
    Wiltel: No More Caller ID? (B.J. Guillot)
    Snakes In The Net (was Allnet Tries to Hide....) (Michael Fumich)
    Reward for Private Line Information (Greg Nemec)
    New Twist in SJ Network (Steve Cogorno)

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----------------------------------------------------------------------



> In *most* area where you may dial local across an NPA boundry you dial
> 7D.  'The rule' in *most* rural areas is 'if it is local, it is 7D'
> regardless of NPA.  The exception is in *metropolitan* areas where you
> dial 10D or 11D to cross NPAs.

Don't you hate it when people think the entire world is just like
their neighborhood?  In NYNEX territory, you cannot dial any inter-NPA
calls with seven digits. None, zero, zip. This is equally true in New
York City as it is in Derby Line VT. It used to be the case that local
calls across NPA borders such as 617->401 and 802->819 could be dialed
with seven digits, but a year or so ago they changed the rules so now
all inter-NPA calls are 11D, even free local calls.

It seems to vary by operating company: in highly urban New Jersey,
they've still managed to protect enough prefixes that all intra-state
local calls can be dialed with 7 digits (11D also works) although with
the continued growth in 201 and 908 it's hard to say how much longer
that'll be the case.

In the related area of whether 1+ means toll or means 11D, that's also
a deeply religious issue where the religion varies from area to area.
In New York, New Jersey, and California, toll dialing was never
closely associated with 1+, so in those states you dial intra-NPA
calls with 7D and inter-NPA calls with 11D, regardless of whether
they're local or toll. But in New England they must have had more SxS
exchanges since the PUCs in 5 out of 6 states mandated that all toll
calls must be dialed with 11D. (In New Hampshire it's a customer
option.) Local inter-NPA calls are dialed 11D as well, so 1+ means
"toll, maybe".

This leads to some rather silly situations, e.g. if you're in Boston,
all but about 25 of the prefixes in 617 are considered local, so you
have to remember a special rule for dialing Marblehead, Marshfield,
Whitman and a few other places in 617 that are toll from Boston. This
is particularly silly since Boston has a peculiar combination of rates
so that the message rate charge for a 7D "local" call to Lexington can
be considerably higher than for a "toll" call to Marblehead.


Regards,

John R. Levine, Trumansburg NY
Primary perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies"
and Information Superhighwayman wanna-be

------------------------------



Linc Madison wrote:

> James E. Bellaire (bellaire@tk.com) wrote:

>> Q. Why should NPAs be required to split rather than be overlaid?

>> A. They should not.  NPA overlays have been in use for several years 
in
>> New York and California.  This means 10 or 11 digit dialing for local
>> calls, with the old users being able to keep their numbers. Sometimes
>> 7 digit dialing is allowed IF the area code is the same.

> This is utterly false.  There are no (zero) NPA overlays in California
> and there is only one that is in VERY limited use in New York.  The
> 415/510 split was a split, not an overlay.  The 213/818/310 and
> 714/619/909 splits were splits, not overlays.  The 212/718/718 split
> (I list 718 twice because the Bronx initially kept 212 but later moved
> into 718) was a split, not an overlay.  The 917 overlay on 212/718 is
> used only by a small number of cellular phones.  In none of these
> cases were old users able to keep their numbers, except to the extent
> that the original plan for 917 was abandoned.  (The plan was to force
> all cellular and beeper numbers into 917.)

You'll have to define "small number of cellular phones".  As far as
cellular is concerned, last year CellOne NY/NJ forced all of its
existing 212 customers to have their phones re-programmed for new 917
numbers (the customers did NOT get the same number in 917, as the plan
is/was to combine all wireless services from 212 and 718 into 917).
They told 718 customers that they would have to be reprogrammed
sometime in the future.  BAMS/NYNEX "asked" their customers to change
earlier this year.  As of Jan 1, 1994 (or maybe even earlier), new
cellular customers were no longer assigned numbers in 212 or 718.

The last I heard, there was talk about moving upper Manhattan land
lines to either 917 or a new NPA within the next two years.  The
problem with moving landlines to 917 NOW is that a customer is not
guaranteed the same number in the new NPA, since it has been in use
for a few years.


Stan

------------------------------



In article <telecom15.352.5@eecs.nwu.edu>, James E. Bellaire 
<bellaire@tk.
com> wrote:

> I, bellaire@tk.com (James E. Bellaire) wrote:

>>> Q. Why should users be forced to use area codes when dialing across 
NPA
>>> boundries [sic]?
>>> A. They are not.  Suprised?  In many rural areas users can dial 
across
>>> NPA and state lines with 7 digits.  The only time 10 or 11 digits 
are used
>>> is in major metropolitan areas.

> goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) replied:

>> This latter statement is certainly false.  Inter-NPA 7D dialing is 
the
>> exception, not the rule, even in rural areas.

> In *most* area where you may dial local across an NPA boundry you dial
> 7D.  'The rule' in *most* rural areas is 'if it is local, it is 7D'
> regardless of NPA.  The exception is in *metropolitan* areas where you
> dial 10D or 11D to cross NPAs.

   In general, 'the rule' is not based on metropolitan vs. rural, but
on a state-by-state LEC basis.  For example, the "Indiana rule" is for
Foreign NPA Local calls is '7D'.  The "Illinois rule" is '1+10D'.

> The only 1+ NPA requirement I have seen in all of Indiana is from East
> Chicago, Hammond, and Whiting, Indiana who can call Calumet City, 
Illinois,
> locally by dialing 1+708.

   I believe the "1 + NPA local" communities in Indiana are really 
served by 
Illinois Bell (or at least are part of the Chicago LATA).  So they 
follow 
the "Illinois rule".

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is quite interesting that you 
mention
> the Hammond, Whiting and East Chicago area of northern Indiana in your
> article.

> A similar case existed in Antioch, Illinois and North Antioch, 
Wisconsin
> where 312-395 could dial 414-396 as seven digits and vice-versa. This
> did not however prevent the use of 396 elsewhere in northern Illinois;
> the rule was that subscribers in Antioch had to dial 1+ to reach 
anywhere
> in northern Illinois *other than their immediate local area*.

   North Antioch, while in Wisconsin, is served by the Antioch switch,
is in Illinois Bell territory and part of the Chicago LATA.  They do 
have
to make 'Toll calls' using 1+708 to reach Blue Island, violating the
usual Illinois rule of Home NPA Toll calls being '7D'.  And they violate
the Illinois rule for Foreign NPA Local calls by permitting '7D' to
North Antioch.  For all practical purposes, Illinois Bell treats North
Antioch as part of the 708 NPA, except for taxes, PUC rules, etc.

   But for MOST purposes, cross-NPA local calls are dialed '1 + NPA' in
Illinois, Alabama, Alaska (are there any such calls from Alaska??  To
Canada, perhaps?), California, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Wisconsin and
virtually all of the East Coast and the traditional Southern states
(Texas excepted).

   Maryland, part of Virginia 703 NPA (DC area treated like Maryland)),
DC itself, Missouri in the St. Louis area (314 NPA), Texas and all of
Canada have cross-NPA local calls dialed as '10D'.

   The rest (most of the West minus Pac Bell/Nevada Bell, and the Plains
states) uses '7D' for cross-NPA local calling.  Or doesn't have such
calling at all.

   Note that there are exceptions to the 1 + NPA and 10D rules in such
states, usually when a Foreign NPA is served by a switch in another NPA.
This happens a lot in Independent areas, which are typically 'rural'.
Thus the observation that '7D' is a 'rural rule'.


Al Varney


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: While Hammond, East Chicago, Whiting and
Gary, Indiana *were* part of Illinois Bell in the past, they have been
part of Indiana Bell for many years now. How they got to be part of 
Illinois
Bell in the first place is an interesting bit of history. If you go back 
to
the start of this century or before, John Rockefeller had his offices in
Chicago, but his refinery in Whiting. William Gary had the offices of 
US Steel in Chicago, but the steel mill in a small company town named 
after
himself on the shore of Lake Michigan just east of Whiting. As phones 
increased in popularity and usage and it got to the point that every
company had to have at least one <grin!>, Mssrs. Gary and Rockefeller
both thought it would be a good idea to have this new form of rapid
communication between their offices in Chicago and their respective
plant and refinery superintendents. The Chicago Telephone Company 
(Illinois
Bell's predecessor here prior to its purchase by AT&T in the early 
1920's)
was more than happy to oblige, and soon wires were strung all the way to
the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Telephone directories for the 
period
about 1900 show but one entry each for that area: the Whiting Refinery,
ask operator for Whiting Toll Station 1; and the United States Steel
Gary Works, ask operator for Gary Works. 

US Steel also had their 'South Chicago Works' running but it was served
by the South Chicago exchange of CTC (which is perhaps why in much more
recent years when they were still in business there their phone number 
was 
SOUth Chicago-2111.) The CTC was more than pleased to get phone lines
installed all across the part of northern Indiana at the southern tip
of Lake Michigan with the industrial barons largely footing the bill
for the initial work. When AT&T bought CTC and put it into the 'Bell
System' family of companies under the name 'Illinois Bell' the existing 
contracts and arrangements in place were simply kept intact.

Earliest instance of 'reseller' that I can think of: when workers in
Gary (the company town) inquired about getting telephones of their own --
those who could afford it since Mr. Gary was chintzy with wages and most
of the 'salary' earned by the workers went back to US Steel to pay for
rent and merchandise from the company store -- who do you suppose 
supplied
it?  The Turner Telephone Exchange ... a subsidiary of US Steel run by
an executive of US Steel named, ummm .. Turner I think  <grin> ... In 
the
early 1920's the United States Supreme Court divested US Steel, just as
happened to AT&T sixty years later. Part of the deal was they had to
divest themselves of the Gary Municipal Corporation and anything to do
with the town. CTC/Illinois Bell took over the phone service aspect of
it. 

They all thought so highly of Mr. Turner that they retained his name
for the exchange, not once mind you -- but six times as the (now indepen-
dent) town of Gary, Indiana grew, prospered and required more and more
telephone service; i.e. Turner-2, Turner-3, Turner-4, Turner-5, Turner-6 
and Turner-7. The exchange split six times over the next forty or so 
years, 
with the subscribers asking the operator for five digit numbers of the 
form 2xxxx through 7xxxx. Gary 'went dial' in 1956 and it finally 
evolved
to where it is today as 219-882 through 219-887. Things, you see, don't
just happen by chance. There are reasons things are numbered the way 
they are as often as not, especially where the very, very old telephone
prefixes are concerned.  Then one day US Steel for all intents and
purposes closed down its Chicago area operation, and Gary went belly-up.
It, like the 'downtown' areas of Hammond, Whiting and East Chicago is 
now 
mostly just boarded up storefronts, and deserted streets. 

Another early 'reseller' of phone service was George Pullman. His 
company
town by the same name was just south of Chicago, and along with rent and
groceries which the workers bought at stores he operated in the town he
owned, they could get phone service from him also if they could afford
it. When he became 'enlightened' and decided to stick to making railroad
sleeping cars and servicing them (when attached to railroad trains 
around
the USA) he sold off the town of Pullman to the workers who incorporated
with their own government. Eventually the town of Pullman was annexed 
into
the City of Chicago whence it became the Chicago neighborhood known as
Pullman as it is today. From the days when the Emperor owned everything 
in
sight and had the telephone exchange named after himself comes our 
present
day 312-785 or PULlman, named after the man who used to own it all.   
PAT]

------------------------------



To sum it all up, people are not happy about area code splitting, nor
are they happy about area code overlays. So damned if you do and
damned if you don't.

Just suck it up and go to 10 digits for every thing!


Matt

------------------------------



There are reports that AT&T is all set to enter the local call arena
and provide some fierce competition. According to Newsbytes reports
they are ready to take a beating at first to gain ground in the
market.

What are the implications of this move?  How is AT&T going to do it?
Can we be looking at an era where we could get local, long distance,
cellular, pager, PCS and even online services through the same
provider?  What about monopoly fears, you think the courts/DOJ/FCC
will like this?


Neeraj "Nick" Vora Programmer/Analyst 
Dept of Pathology Unversity of Miami
NICKVORA@UMIAMI.IR.MIAMI.EDU


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As long as there are 'several monopolies'
to choose from, there should be no objection.  There was quite a large
article in the {Wall Street Journal} a couple days ago discussing this
very same thing. According to WSJ, the 'secret plans' of AT&T call for
a massive strike entry into the market early in 1996. I really suspect
they must have gone back and studied closely how Ted Vail did business
when he ran the company a century ago: move in, take such huge losses at
first that you bankrupt all your competition in the process, then 
consolidate
it all back into one large company. 

Ted Vail was like that, you know. When the patent on the telephone 
expired,
and AT&T no longer could prevent other people from manufacturing them,
that is when all the small independent telcos started appearing all over
the USA. Vail would send his representatives into a small town with an
independent telco to make an offer to buy the company. Some would sell 
out
when the price was good enough but even then, back in the early part of
this century, there was sufficient hostility to AT&T that many of the 
small
telcos flatly refused to sell out. Outraged, they would tell anyone who
wanted to listen that, 'we will never become part of the Bell ...'. They
wanted to retain their independence. 

Vail's response would be, "then fine, don't sell. See how much value 
your
service is to anyone when you can't interconnect with anyone else." He
would pull the plug, literally, and refuse interconnection, leaving a 
small
town telco with just whatever subscribers it had and nowhere to connect

_
                                 

them except each other. Then he would start a competing telco in the 
very
same town and of course, as part of the 'System' it would be 
interconnected
with other 'Bell System' telcos. **Then he would give the service away 
to
all new subscribers for six months or so ... whatever it took.** The day
the independent was driven out of business by these tactics was the day
the susbcribers to the new 'Bell System' company in that town had to 
start
paying, and paying plenty to make up for the losses to date. 

What's interesting about this alleged plan by AT&T to 'take over' local
service next year is that they already have several new switches in 
place
largely sitting idle waiting for the day to arrive when they go in
service and (according to the WSJ story) AT&T plans to do something 
quite
ridiculous and offer their existing long distance customers 'local area
service' for some very small amount of money; far less than what the 
BOCs
are getting. Full custom calling features, the works.  Interesting 
times. 
PAT]

------------------------------



 Is there a site that has the current lists (Hopefully in Binary form)
of all current and anticipated North American Area Codes as well as
all International Dialing Country codes?


Richard Shockey           Nuntius Coropration     
8045 Big Bend Blvd S.110  St. Louis, MO  63119    
Voice 314.968.1009        FAX   314.968.3163
Internet  rshockey@ix.netcom.com


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Mr. Shockey, you might look at the
Telecom Archives. Our list is as good as any these days with all the
changes going on. Use anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. When connected, then
'cd telecom-archives'.  If you do not have anonymous ftp at your site
then use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service by sending email
to 'tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu'. If you need the help file for using the
email service, just send me a note asking for it.   PAT].

------------------------------



On Mon, 21 Aug 1995 14:34:00 -0600, Chris Gettings <gettings@tcel.com>
wrote:

> Stentor thrives on this kind of "dis-information" and other dirty
> tricks to try to keep their monopoly grip on Canada. 

The Stentor group plays the same game the competition plays. And, what
do you classify as dirty tricks? Pricing competetive? Thats the name
of the game. "Squish the competition!" Like all other companies trying
to make it in this world.

> Stentor is determined to thwart true competition despite laws 
> providing for it and the regulators are frustrated and powerless 
> against Stentor's financial muscle.  Stentor has armies of lawyers 
> and lobbyists to dilatory tactics and obfuscate the truth when 
> responding to CRTC queries.

What the heck is real competition? We have a regulated competition
here in Canada. The CRTC regulates the pricing of the Stentor telcos
the same as they did when they were not in competition. If we want
true competition, get rid of the CRTC. Anything the government touches
here always goes to hell. This one will too!

> Potential competitors are destroyed by Stentor's predatory
> pricing and unfair competition;

You mean Stentor's LD pricing is cheaper that the competition.  That's
not unfair, that's competition!

> and Stentor is too stupid, closed minded and anachronistic to
> realize that all the Bell Companies and AT&T have benefited from
> competition in the United States.  Sales and profits are up and
> markets are expanding for the Bells in the States.  Who suffers in
> Canada?  Canadian individuals and businesses who can ill afford it
> considering the state of their economy.

Until the local competition is implemented in a year or three, things
are not going to be like the USA up here. After local goes, LD rates
here will drop drastically. The Stentor group still has to up keep the
local network. Policies of the past dictated that people out in the
boon-docks 60 miles away deserved telephone service as did the city
dwellers. Since LD traditionally helped upkeep this local network and
LD rates now being lowered below this help point, one of two things
have to happen. The Stentor group either drops out of local, which
won't happen, or the local rates go up. (Way UP!) As this happens,
local competition will start popping up because it becomes a viable
business. (At this point, it's not.) Then, with local costs not digging
into the funds anymore, LD prices go down as the competition comes in.


]\/[ark ]/\[illiston - Freelance Games & Graphics Programmer
Author of: Two Bit Poker, Lucky Sevens & Ringing Bells.

------------------------------



Can anyone give me a yes-or-no answer on whether Wiltel has stopped
passing Caller ID from one area to the next?

I regularly call from Houston to Colorado.  The Houston numbers are 
using
a Wiltel reseller, and the Colorado number would always get my Houston
telephone number on their Caller ID box.

For the past month, the Colorado Caller ID box has been getting "OUT OF
AREA" every time I call it.

When I call my Wiltel reseller, they are clueless.  So, I call the
Wiltel operator (00#), and they give me some 800 number to call for
more information.  At this 800 number, they say they "can't tell me"
the answer and that I will have to call my reseller to find out the
answer.  (Runaround).

The funny thing is, when I first signed up with this reseller, I would
ask "you transmit Caller ID" and I'd get "you betcha" from everybody.
Now, everyone seems to have forgotten what Caller ID is.  Caller ID
was transmitted, and was very useful, but it's gone, and my reseller
even raised by rates about two months ago.  Argh!


Regards,

B.J. Guillot ... Houston, Texas USA 

------------------------------



Yesterday I spoke with a high-level AT&T person who has put me on the
right information track in the "500" number situation. He informed me
of the following.

Bellcore is the agency that handles prefix assignments for the 500
NPA.  500-200 & 500-938 are actually ASSIGNED to WKP Communications/
Long Distance.  500-738 is assigned to International Teleservices Ltd.
of Los Angeles CA.

Brian Cartmell of WKP made the application for the prefixes for both
companies, so they may be related. My source indicated to me that
there are certain guidelines to be followed with use of the 500 NPA by
companies, among them, that they are not to be used by "Adult Services". 
He said he was aware of Mr. ("an old hand in that business") Cartmell
and WKP. My source also stated they were aware of WKP's reputation but
that they were assured by WKP that everything would fall within the
guidelines. My source said he would forword those guidelines to me and
I will post them here when received.

He was very disturbed by my report. He stated if there was a FORMAL
COMPLAINT and/or WKP was in violation of the guidelines, or they
willfully misrepresented themselves in the application, THE PREFIXES
CAN BE REVOKED!!! ;+)

So, ALLNET/Frontier et al may NOT be directly aware after all of what
is going on. Many times the left hand doesn't know what the right hand 
is
doing, and my impression is this was so filtered that they truly did not
know. They know NOW however :+), as the numerous calls from various VP's
indicate. So "tentative" apologies to ALLNET.

Pat, you are absolutely right in your analogy of the adult bookstore
and the "red light" district. I am not concerned about the content of
what they do, in fact I am a STRONG free speech advocate. But it
really galls me that these people polluted the 800 "block", and now
the "500" block of our neighborhood. You indicated in one response
that you thought it would be a good public service of TELECOM Digest
to expose these people. I AGREE!! I am willing to act as a clearing
house for this information, post file's and "alert" lists to the
archives, and to post findings and reports to this Digest. Interested?

One further note, (if you would indulge me for a few more lines) the
LAMEST phone call I received over the past few days was a d00d (sorry)
from "Bank One", whom I have no business relationship with whatsoever.
He said please call 800-939-3306 ext xxxx "it's important". WHY do you
suppose this number gets a reorder from pay phones and only works from
"regular" lines? WHY do you suppose there is no attendant, or live
person available anywhere or at any extension? (I don't have any
collection agencies after me.) Maybe that person will see this and
leave a more detailed message on my Voice Mail. Pretty lame attempt to
get a direct voice number (ANI) if you ask me. I wasn't born
yesterday!


Michael L. Fumich  / E-Mail: <3311835@mcimail.com> / Phone: 708-461-5770


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Someone is looking for you apparently. 
You
may have been placed with an agency and don't yet realize it. Remember
folks, whenever you get a postcard or a call saying 'call this 800 
number
to extension xxx' it is very likely the person or company sending it is
trying to get your phone number using ANI provided with 800 service. So
take care. You might want to call it from some number other than your
home.   PAT]

------------------------------



I'm working a study which compares the ordering and installation
performance of major providers of communications services and I will
pay a cash reward to qualified people who will participate in a 15-20
minute phone interview.

If you have ordered the following within the past 60 or next 60 days:

 Interlata private line (DS0 - 56/64K, DS1/T1 - 1.544 Mbps,
 Fractional T1, or DS3 - 45 Mbps) or Frame Relay service from
 AT&T, MCI, Sprint, or WilTel (LDDS)

and/or

 Intralata private line from Ameritech, Bell South, or PacTel
Please e-mail your name and phone number to gnemec@merle.acns.nwu.edu.

You can then be called for a quick phone interview.


Thank you,

Greg    gnemec@merle.acns.nwu.edu

------------------------------



In yesterday's {Mercury}, there was another article about Pacific
Bell's new network in San Jose.  A San Jose woman refused to allow
Pacific Bell to connect her house to the new network.  She legally has
this right, because Pacific Bell cannot install equipment more than ten
feet from the property line.  She said she is not interested in video
or internet service: though she does own a computer she doesn't have a
TV.

Pacific Bell finally agreed not to hook up her home, but they also
told her that she would lose her POTS service in a year or so when the
copper network is abandoned. She said that was fine with her, because
she doesn't want any part of the new technology.

The CPUC said that Pacific Bell has agreed to not pass network costs
on to customers through their basic service phone charges.  The
article also mentioned that since locla competition may be coming to
California, another company may buy Pacific Bell's then obsolete
copper network.


Steve    cogorno@netcom.com

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V15 #356
******************************

                                          
