BROOKS%csss-a.prime.com@RELAY.CS.NET (04/22/88)
I hope I'm wrong, but I see a period of chaos looming for all of us who
live in Eastern Massachusetts and our correspondents.
On July 16, 1988, New England Telephone will officially turn on the 508
area code. This will be formed out of the western half of the 617 area
code, serving Eastern Massachusetts (Boston and points west). The
dividing line runs roughly one town's worth west of MA Route 128.
N.E.T. promises there will be no change to the rate structure. We all
believe that, don't we? ;-)
>From that date, N.E.T. will provide silent redirection of calls for
THREE MONTHS ONLY. After October 16, 1988, a recorded message will
kick in if you dial the wrong area code or, when calling from 617 or
508, forget to add one. Clearly, the recorded message will not mean
much to your modem. After a year, even this goes away, and N.E.T. can
at last start reassigning numbers.
So you'll have a 3 month period within which you can fix your pathalias
and Systems files. People living in Western Eastern Mass will be
adding 617 to some Bostonwards calls. Greater Boston will be adding
some 508s. Rest of the world, you'll be changing some 617s to 508.
Until October, you have no indication that you got it right.
Fortunately, most of our local Well Known Hosts stay in 617 (MIT,
Harvard and BBN, certainly. I don't know about necntc). Being Well
Known, they may have more than the average 617 numbers in their own
databases (are they listening?). Worcester, Westboro, Maynard,
Framingham, and Sudbury are among the towns moved to outer darkness.
Of course, we can keep 617 lines at a price.
I have a list of the affected exchange numbers, but I'd rather not type
it in if someone has a copy online.
I understand that some long distance carriers have already turned 508
on, as has N.E.T. in some exchanges. But don't rely on it yet.
You now have about 6 months notice to find out if your correspondents
have new numbers, so Don't Panic. If you use a PBX that bars unknown
area codes, you might like to find out what it is going to do.
617 residents can call 1-800-555-5000 for more information.
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Internet: BROOKS@CSSS-A.PRIME.COM
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Standard disclaimer applies as appropriate.celerity@bucasb.bu.edu (Roger B.A. Klorese) (04/22/88)
In article <3920@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> BROOKS%csss-a.prime.com@RELAY.CS.NET writes: >Fortunately, most of our local Well Known Hosts stay in 617 (MIT, >Harvard and BBN, certainly. I don't know about necntc). It changes. --- Roger B.A. Klorese MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. {ames,decwrl,prls,pyramid}!mips!rogerk 25 Burlington Mall Rd, Suite 300 rogerk@mips.COM Burlington, MA 01803 * Your witticism here.* +1 617 270-0613