covert@covert.DEC.COM (John R. Covert) (11/25/86)
There have been big changes in 800 service over the past few years. It has been more than five years since you've been able to tell anything about the location from the 800 NXX. Prior to then, XX2s were intrastate, XX7s were within Canada, and every prefix represented a particular area code (of course some area codes had more than one prefix). Now that assignment algorithm has gone by the wayside. About five years ago, AT&T introduced "Advanced 800 Service" which permitted any number to be routed to different destinations depending on both the caller's location and the time of day. Thus 800-EASTERN would reach the nearest EAL reservations center during the daytime, cutting back to those which were left open at night. You had to pay for normal 800 lines (which may or may not have also had known numbers) and then a few hundred a month extra for the "special" number and a nickel here and there for each optional translation by time or location. Then, about a year ago, AT&T started offering international 800 service for customers in the UK, France, Italy, and a bunch of other countries (as well as for U.S. customers who want to receive incoming calls from those locations -- in the U.K. 800 numbers are 0800 xx-xx-xx). Up until a month ago, all equal access C.O.s sent all 800 calls to AT&T regardless of your default carrier choice. But just this month, the situation got more complex. Local equal access C.O.s must six-digit translate all 800 calls, sending the following 23 prefixes to MCI: 234, 283, 284, 288, 289, 274, 333, 365, 444, 456, 627, 666, 678, 727, 759, 777, 825, 876, 888, 937, 950, 955, and 999, and the following to WUD Metrophone: 988. Rumor has it that US Sprint will get 728. AT&T currently has all xx2 and all other prefixes they were currently using. If a C.O. can't six-digit translate (which also means it isn't an equal access C.O.), it must send the calls to the local intra-LATA tandem for translation. Also, AT&T is supposed to send any of the NXXs it doesn't handle back to the local telco. (And since there's no revenue *and* AT&T must pay for the use of the local access lines, you can bet they'll scream to the local telcos to fix errors.) But not for long. The next step comes when Bellcore finishes the next big project. This will be sort of like the Advanced 800 service AT&T introduced years ago, but will allow the 800 customer to select not only destination based on time-of-day and originating location, but to also select a different carrier based on these and other algorithms. At that point *all* 800 numbers will have to take a stop through the local telco tandem for routing based on the algorithm. It will be the local telco who will get the money for providing the routing service. 800 service is getting very complex! /john