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TELECOM Digest     Tue, 22 Aug 95 14:21:00 CDT    Volume 15 : Issue 352

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    New Newsletter on 800,900 Numbers: inTELigence (Judith Oppenheimer)
    Area Code Crisis -- A Different Viewpoint (Fritz Whittington)
    Re: Seven Digits Across NPA Lines (Bob Goudreau)
    Re: Seven Digits Across NPA Lines (Wes Leatherock)
    Re: Seven Digits Across NPA Lines (James E. Bellaire)
    Re: Seven Digits Across NPA Lines (Patrick L. Humphrey)
    Re: Seven Digits Across NPA Lines (Carl Moore)
    Re: Shanghai to Raise Telephone Numbers to Eight Digits (Sam Spens 
Clason)
    Re: Shanghai to Raise Telephone Numbers to Eight Digits (Michael 
Jennings)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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----------------------------------------------------------------------



Newsletter Separates Fact From Fiction For Users Of 800, 900 Telephone
Services
  
New York, NY -- The alleged exhaustion of available 800 telephone 
numbers 
and proposed new rules on how the system is to be administrated has 
spawned 
a newsletter to keep users of 800 and 900 exchanges up-to-date.
  
inTELigence, published by Interactive CallBrand, tracks actions being
considered by the rule-making bodies involved as well as proposals from 
the
telephone service providers.    
  
"We separate fact from rumor," said Judith Oppenheimer, president of
Interactive CallBrand. "The newsletter tracks the regulators and the
service providers and compares their claims with what's actually going 
on
in the marketplace. That way we can advise users about what proposals 
they
may want to make to the rule-making bodies."    
  
Several months ago regulators became concerned about the dwindling 
supply
of 800 numbers and they predicted the current supply could be exhausted 
by
February, 1996. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other
bodies are reviewing how to allocate the current supply of numbers and 
is
overseeing the addition of a new 888 toll-free exchange which is 
supposed
to be ready for use in March, 1996.   
    
"The next few months will be critical and proposed rules will be 
changing
from week to week. Our clients needed some way to keep up and that's why 
we
started inTELigence," Oppenheimer said.    
  
Interactive CallBrand and its clients are concerned that doubling the
toll-free database will cause quality of service to be compromised. A
decline in service could mean slower phone service for customers who 
have
come to depend upon the 800 and 900 systems.    
  
inTELigence will also be monitoring plans by service providers to 
educate
the public about the new 888 service and changes in the telephone system
that may be needed to accommodate it.    
  
These issues are critically important not only to the technical people 
who
will have to implement the new system, but also to marketers who need 
800
and 900 services for customer sales and who want access to the new 888
exchange.    
  
Subscription information is available by calling ICB at 212-684-7210.    
   
For More Information Contact:  Judith Oppenheimer, 212-684-7210       
 

Judith Oppenheimer, President 
 
Interactive CallBrand(TM):  Strategic Leadership, Competitive 
Intelligence 
Producer@pipeline.com.    Ph: +1 800 The Expert.    Fax: +1 212 684-
2714. 
 
Interactive CallBrand is a leading source of information and support on 
800
and related issues, representing user positions before the FCC, State
Department, Int'l. Telecommunications Union, and domestic industry 
forums. 
 
------------------------------



There is an extremely interesting document available at:

http://www.open.gov.uk/oftel/oftelwww/oftcons.htm

which explains how the UK intends to handle the area-code and number
shortage problems, in a very flexible and user-friendly way.  Makes me
wonder why we couldn't do it the same way (I know, North America is a
lot bigger and has more people, but the scheme is scaleable).  It also
(horrors!) asks for *feedback* and *comments* on the various
proposals.

But we know it would never work here -- the opening statement is:

"*TELEPHONE NUMBERS BELONG* to people and businesses and they need to be
treated as a national resource. OFTEL took over responsibility for the
UK Numbering Scheme from BT in 1994. This means that OFTEL now makes
plans for the future use of numbers and allocates numbers to telephone
companies to allow them to provide service to their customers.  To help
us make the right decisions, we are committed to consulting all those
with an interest - residential customers, business users and the
telecommunications industry."

(Emphasis mine.)

And other heresies like:

"When you call a person with the same area code, you usually dial only
their local number -- this is known as local dialing.  But you can dial
the full national number if you prefer. Your call will be connected and
the charge is the same either way."


Fritz Whittington Texas Instruments, P.O. Box 655474, MS 446 Dallas, TX 
75265
    Shipping address: 13510 North Central Expressway, MS 446 Dallas, TX 
75243 

fritz@ti.com                 Office: +1 214 995 0397     FAX: +1 214 995 
6194


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You're right! It would never, never do 
here
in the USA, where we have the only really correct way of doing these 
things.
I should have censored your message entirely rather than risk allowing 
these
heresies to become known to telecom admins here.   PAT] 

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



Carl Moore writes:

>> Inter-NPA 7D dialing is the exception, not the rule, even in
>> rural areas.

> It refers only to LOCAL calls to other area codes.

Of course.  And I repeat:  11D (or 10D) dialing for such calls seems
far more prevalent than 7D.


Bob Goudreau  Data General Corporation
goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive 
+1 919 248 6231  Research Triangle Park, NC  27709, USA

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



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

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There really is no reason to ever go to
> eleven digits as in 1+anything. The reason is that when we get to the
> point that all calls must be dialed as AC + seven digits, we will no
> longer need the initial '1' as a flag. Right now it serves as a flag
> to indicate that an area code is following rather than a prefix. When
> we get to where we always begin with an area code, then switches can
> be modified to always expect ten digits and always expect the first
> three to be an area code.    PAT]

      I believe there is another reason for this, Pat.  The leading
"1" identifies the call as a call for which a charge is made.

      In Southwestern Bell territory, at least, originally the leading
"1" was not required.  A great many calls to the business office were
generated by people making 7D calls to numbers which were interzone or
toll.  They had no indication that the calls were chargeable.

      It eventually became apparent that a large number of customers
were not comfortable with the fact they could not tell from the way
they had to dial the call whether the call was toll or not.  (Note
that virtually all service in Southwestern Bell territory was, and is,
flat rate.)

      So the driving force in adopting "1+" in Southwestern Bell
territory, at least, was the demand from customers and the number
of calls that had to be written off.

      Those in this newsgroup tend to feel that everyone is, or should
be, as knowledgable as they are about communications matters.  The
great majority of customers are not, and furthermore they don't want
to be and don't see why they should be forced to be.  And in the long
run they will vote if that's what is required to make telephone
service convenient for them.  It is, perhaps, one of the penalties
that has to be paid for the telephone's becoming such an integrated
part of the fabric of life in the U.S.A. that the great body of the
public thinks it is theirs and should be operated for their benefit.

      Even in a corporate environment, it is very hard to educate the
users about how to use the telephone service.  Most of them don't
know; they may learn how to use a few features that are advantageous
to them.  I have been a part of such education efforts.

JEB> Q. Why should users be forced to use area codes when dialing across
JEB> NPA boundries?

JEB> A. They are not.  Suprised?  In many rural areas users can dial 
across
JEB> NPA and state lines with 7 digits.  The only time 10 or 11 digits
JEB> are used is in major metropolitan areas.

      There are some cases where this is true, but they tend to be
special situations.  One of the most notable cases is the Kansas City
metropolitan area (certainly not a rural area) where cross-NPA and
cross-state line (they are the same thing there) are indeed 7D for
local calls.

      But this is limited to calls within the Kansas City metropolitan
exchange.  If you call outside the flat rate area, you have to use
1 + NPA + 7D.

      Note that when cross-NPA 7D dialing is used, the NXX has to be
"protected" in the other NPA.  So the number of available NXXs is
reduced by the number of NNXs that can be dialed 7D across the
boundary.

      So I imagine the days of that arrangement in metropolitan
Kansas City are numbered.

      In the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, that time has
already arrived.  Local calls in the same area code are dialed as 7D.
Local calls across the NPA boundary are dialed as AC+7D (10 digits).
Chargeable calls to any point, whether within the same area code or
not, are dialed as 1+AC+7D (11 digits).

JEB> In residential areas an overlay could be perfomed by allowing 7 
digit
JEB> dialing to all exchanges within the community, and 11 digit dialing 
to
JEB> zone dialing or LD locations.  That way neighbors could call each
JEB> other using 7 digit dialing.

      Since in cities of any size the percentage of intra-wire center
calls is quite low, this wouldn't be of any great benefit.  And wire
center boundaries don't usually follow "residential area" or
"community" boundaries anyway.

JEB> Business areas would not be able to do this because of their high 
use
JEB> of NXXs, but the problems are their creation and a split would be
JEB> worse.  (See previous messages about stationary and advertising 
costs
JEB> associated with a split.)

      Since almost all "areas" (wire center areas? metropolitan
exchanges? what kind of area?) are a mix of residential and business,
and served from the same COs, it's hard to see how, or why, this
distinction could be made or implemented.

      As to stationary and advertising costs, these occur whenever a
wire center boundary is changed, when a business relocates or gets a
centrex or other types of inward dialing arrangements.

      And if the business expects to ever get a call from outside its
own narrow area, it's going to need to show its area code anyway.

      Most businesses are fairly small, with a few lines at most (many
have only one).  But unless it's the local barber shop, most of them
expect someone will call them long distance at some time and will want
to show their area code anyway.  (Even the local barber shop may
expect to get calls from vendors outside the local area, and not just
unsolicited sales calls, either; businesses need vendors to supply
their needs.)


Wes Leatherock    wes.leatherock@hotelcal.com                            
wes.leatherock@f2001.n147.z1.fidonet.org           


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Wait a minute. We went through this 
several
years ago here about the meaning and purpose of 'one'. The One True 
Religion
says that 'one' indicates the three digits following consitute an area 
code.
I had thought that all those heretics who kept insisting that 'one' 
meant
'the call you are now dialing has a toll charge involved' had long since
been excommunicated from this Digest and that those who then persisted 
in
their heresy had been beheaded. <g> ... Now here you are back to pester 
me
again!  ...

Even if we assume there is some validity in the 'one = toll' argument --
and it probably was valid a number of years ago when area codes did not
change with every street corner and back yard neighbor's fence -- there 
is
not a lot of consistency there now. One does not equal toll for large
segments of customers in 312/708 who are near each other. There are many
many cases now where inter-areacode dialing is purely local. I'll grant
you in more rural and lesser populated areas of the USA -- let us take
Wyoming, or Montana as examples -- you still have to go the entire state
before you change area codes and toll generated from seven digit dialing 
is pretty common. But do they dial 1 plus seven digits in that case, in
order to catch the attention of the originator of the call?  I would 
think
they would do that if alerting the caller to the existence of toll was
the reason for the leading one.   PAT] 

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



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.

Check the boundry lines between NPAs in 'rural' areas, such as the=20
Michigan/Indiana border, where South Bend, IN, can call Niles, MI, and
Elkhart, IN, can call Union and Edwardsburg, MI.

Along every NPA border there are several rural communities who can dial
across the line 7D.

Look at Indiana ---

 317-564 Delphi to 219-652 Burrows / 219-686 Camden / 219-859 Deer Creek 
/
                   219-943 Idaville / 219-965 Yeoman (and back);

 317-981 LaFontaine to 219-563/568/569 Wabash (and back);

 317-964 Union City to 513-968 Union City, OH (as expected);


_
    

 317-732 West College Corner to 513-523/529/798 College Corner, OH
                            and 513-796 Morning Sun, OH;

ALL of these offer 7D local across NPA borders.

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.

Where there is a cross NPA local call in rural areas you are *most 
likely*
to find 7D dialing.  The exception is 10D or 11D.  Inter-NPA 7D dialing 
is
the rule, especially in rural areas.

In other news cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) added:

> While I don't disagree that overlays are a good idea, it will take
> some consumer education.  I don't like the idea of an overlay for
> landline phones though, because I don't want to have to remember what
> area code my friend has (seven digits to remeber is enough for me :-).  
It
> would be easier to put all wireless services into an overlay, then
> tell customers XXX is for wireless.

All NEW services in the overlay, regardless of use.  Most would be
cellular/ paging/PBX uses since that is where most of the growth is.
1+NPA would always be allowed and suggested as the 'norm' with 7D
being allowed for local calls (all exchanges at your CO plus a few
close neighbors).

Nobody should ever have to change their phone number unless they move.
That would include wireless services.  Every time a cell operator has
to move their NXX from one NPA to another they must get every customer
to bring in their phone to change the MIN.  The same NXX cannot be
used in the old NPA for cell service untill all the changes are made.
Paging companies are easier to move since DID to their switches need
not contain the NPA.

As far as cellular in Chicago goes, there are a few NXX conflicts that
prevent moving all cellular in 708 and 312 directly to a new NPA
without changing a few NXX's.  But the majority of NXX's in use for
cellular are not duplicated in the other Chicago NPAs.

It would be nice not to ever change your NPA.  But that is part of
progress.  Have you noticed how many CO names changed when DDD was
introduced?  The recent discussions of Seattle, New Orleans and
Chicago exchange histories show a few of these.  Based on 1940's
estimates the exaustion of NPAs in 1994 was right on target.

The original plan was 'no resplit within 10 years'.  It is a shame to
see resplits within 5 years but that is part of the change in 
technology.
Overlays would fix this IF all users would accept numbers in the
new area and NO user would be removed from the old area.


James E. Bellaire (JEB6)  bellaire@tk.com
Twin Kings Communications  -  Sturgis, MI


[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. I remember when those all dialed 7-D to reach anywhere in 312.
Hammond's exchanges WEstmore-1, 2, and 3 along with TIlden 4 and 5,
plus East Chicago's EXport-7 and 8 had to be dialed 219 + 7D from the
Chicago side however. Note, it was not 1 + 219 + 7D since we did not 
dial
a leading '1' here until about 1980 or so. Even when Chicago had to
dial 219+7D to reach northern Indiana (but not the same way in reverse)
for a few years thereafter Calumet City could still dial 7-D to get
Hammond/Whiting. Of course this meant that the prefixes 397,398,659,
844,845,931,932,933 could not be assigned in the 312 area. 

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*. I think at
one point they asked for community input on the decision and everyone
decided they would prefer to be able to call the Wisconsin side of their
community with seven digits (instead of ten or eleven) even it if meant
having to dial eight digits (1+7D) for everywhere else in the same area
code. That was a long, long time before the 312/708 split of course.  
PAT]

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



In article <telecom15.350.1@eecs.nwu.edu>, goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob
Goudreau) writes:

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

> New York City's 917 NPA has certainly existed for several years, but
> as far as I know, it is the *only* overlay in the entire NANP (though
> overlays almost happened in other places like Chicago, Miami and
> Atlanta).  What California NPA were you referring to?

There is another one in place and operating right now -- 281 here in
Houston, and 972 will be overlaid on 214 (i.e., Dallas) six months
from now.

>> 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.

> What service areas are there that *don't* allow intra-NPA local calls
> to be dialed using 7D?  I'm not aware of any yet, although mandatory
> 10D dialing has been mooted as a future option for some metro areas
> that might receive overlay NPAs.

Indeed, 10D is in its permissive period right now here in 713 (but
*not* in the 281 overlay -- any calls made from or to that NPA _must_
be dialed 10D now), and next March 1 10D will become mandatory on all
local calls within 713.

>> 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.

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

It's still in place in the Kansas City area as of a month ago, from
personal observation, and in a few border communities in South Dakota
(also as of a month ago, from the same personal observation), but in
my travels across sixteen states last month, those are the only places
I found it.


Patrick L. "staying with 713 -- old habits are hard to break" Humphrey

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



goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) includes this question and (his)
answer:

>> A. They are not.  Surprised?  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.

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

It refers only to LOCAL calls to other area codes.

cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) writes:

> 542 may be an overlay, but that is two years from now.

Did you mean 562?  It was just announced as a geographical split,
which means a second area code change in less than ten years for some
people who switched from 213 to 310.  And 760 has been announced for
split of 619.

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



In <telecom15.344.1@eecs.nwu.edu> Peter_Mansfield@australia.notes.pw.com 
writes:

>> It will be the fourth city in the world with eight-digit phone
>> numbers, after Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

> I'm sure that there are other places that I have missed where
> eight-digit numbers are already in use.

The outer Stockholm suburbs have had eight digit numbers for several
years.  Those are the old 07xx-xxx xx numbers that were merged with 08
between 1991 (?) and 1993.  Those numbers then became 08-5xxx xxxx (we
write them 5xx xxx xx).

The government regulatory, Post- & Telestyrelsen (PTS), has decided
that all new Swedish number series are to be 0 plus nine digits but
there is no plan to move all numbers to at least 0 plus eight.  I
guess dominant operator (& former monopoly) Telia isn't going to
change those unless PTS makes them.

I wonder if not the competitors would want numbers that are of
(almost) equivalent length to that of Telia's ...


Sam   www.nada.kth.se/~d92-sam,   sam@nada.kth.se,   +46 7 01234567

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



In article <telecom15.344.3@eecs.nwu.edu>, Glenn Shirley =WA TELEC
ENG= <shirleyg@stanilite.com.au> wrote:

> bkron@netcom.com (BUBEYE!) writes:

>> It will be the fourth city in the world with eight-digit phone
>> numbers, after Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

> Depends what you mean by metropolis, I suppose.  Melbourne, Australia
> (only about three million people I think -- not quite the same scale)
> changed to eight digits in May 1995.  Parts of Sydney have already but
> won't be entirely changed until about half way through next year.
> Brisbane was planned for August this year, Adelaide was August next
> year, Perth was September 1997 although these were the timetable they
> have probably changed.  They could hardly be called metropolis'
> although Sydney and Melbourne would probably be.

 A difference is that the Australian area codes don't just
cover the cities mentioned. Each of the new Australian area codes will
cover at least one whole state. I belive Denmark and Norway also have
eight digit codes for wide areas consisting of more than one city.
France excluding Paris is also like this. I _think_ that Paris, Tokyo
and Hong Kong are the only cities that have an area code for the city
that is not shared with anywhere else and which has entirely eight
digits numbers. I think that this is what the original statement
meant, although it is not exactly what it said.  The question as to
what other cities should have an arrangement like this but don't will
largely be left as an exercise to the reader.  (I would argue London,
certainly. It might have made sense for places like New York and Los
Angeles, too, but the US decided long ago to go for a uniform three +
seven digits which rules it out).


Michael Jennings
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
The University of Cambridge.   mjj12@damtp.cambridge.ac.uk

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

End of TELECOM Digest V15 #352
******************************

             
