[comp.dcom.telecom] Local Calling Areas

Phillip_M_Dampier@cup.portal.COM (05/20/88)

[+---------------
[| In Denver and Atlanta, businesses and residences alike can get flat
[| rates for the entire metro area (50 miles or so across).
[+---------------

[Yes, when I lived in Atlanta, it was said to have "the largest toll-free
[local calling area in the world".

Heh, it seems every telco on the planet wants to make this claim.  Rochester
Telephone Corporation in Rochester, New York makes the same claim.  A few
years ago, they made much over the fact that before the Bell Fiefdom broke
up, they were the largest independent telco on the planet.

City of Rochester (and bordering suburbs) residents can place calls to areas
like Kendall to the west and Sodus & Williamson, NY to the east, which is in
area code 315.  Interesting that we can make toll free calls to NY Telephone
numbers using the icky digital switches they use in more rural areas.  More
clicks than the analog phone systems NY Tel has also used.

To the south, we can reach communities such as Lima, NY and to the north, Lake
Ontario stops the calling area.  It is a huge local calling area for us, and
for $14.85 a month for residential service with touchtone, I'm not yelling.

Roch Tel's little empire is presently adapting to AT&T #5ESS switches in all
of their exchanges.  They are also buying up any little telcos in NY/PA/OH
that they can get their hands on.

So who has the largest local calling area?  Where are those mappers to tell
us!

"Glenn R. Stone" <gs26@prism.gatech.edu> (06/08/91)

In <telecom11.426.3@eecs.nwu.edu> dblyth@oatseu.daytonoh.ncr.com
(Dennis Blyth) writes:

> In Cincinnati Bell territory, one can call from a residence phone in
> Hamilton, Ohio (about 30 miles north of the Ohio river) to the
> Cincinnati International airport ... about 15 miles south of the
> Ohio river...

The Metro Atlanta calling area extends for 80 some miles in a couple
directions ... it'll be in its own area code in March, 1992.

Whee, life in the big city.

Can anybody top that?  (Cobb, Fulton, Dekalb, and portions of
Cherokee, Henry, Paulding, Gwinnett, Clayton counties ...)


Glenn R. Stone    gs26@prism.gatech.edu

arielle@taronga.hackercorp.com (Stephanie da Silva) (06/17/91)

In article <telecom11.440.2@eecs.nwu.edu>, gs26@prism.gatech.edu
(Glenn R. Stone) writes:

> The Metro Atlanta calling area extends for 80 some miles in a couple
> directions ... it'll be in its own area code in March, 1992.

> Can anybody top that? 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Houston. I thought we had the
largest local calling area in the US. The reason why so many local
BBSs have sprung up around here.


Stephanie da Silva                        Taronga Park -- (713) 568-0480
arielle@taronga.hackercorp.com                    Houston, Texas
arielle@hackercorp.com                  (Not the zoo... my Unix system...)

Mark W Wheatley <mwwheatl@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> (06/18/91)

In article <telecom11.465.2@eecs.nwu.edu> arielle@taronga.hackercorp.
com (Stephanie da Silva) writes:

> In article <telecom11.440.2@eecs.nwu.edu>, gs26@prism.gatech.edu
> (Glenn R. Stone) writes:

>> The Metro Atlanta calling area extends for 80 some miles in a couple
>> directions ... it'll be in its own area code in March, 1992.

>> Can anybody top that? 

> I'm surprised no one has mentioned Houston. I thought we had the
> largest local calling area in the US. The reason why so many local
> BBSs have sprung up around here.

	A local paper here (Capitol Hill Beacon) announced that the
Oklahoma City calling area has been expanded to include all exchanges
wthin 35 miles of the "Central Oklahoma City exchange area". The
resulting area is said to to be "three times the size of Rhode Island"
and the paper states the new area is the "biggest in the nation". It's
about 4,000 suqre miles if I remember my formulas correctly :-). For
those with a map handy, it runs from Purcell in the South to Guthrie
in the North, El Reno on the West and Shawnee on the East. Of course
for the ability to call this far we have to pay $25.00/month. And we
still have to pay $1.50/month for tone service. You gotta love
Oklahoma  ...


      University of Oklahoma        *           Mark W. Wheatley       
          Norman Campus             *    mwwheatl@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu
  BS in Computer Science May 1992   *           CIS: 72417,3171        

S M Krieger <smk@attunix.att.com> (06/19/91)

>	A local paper here (Capitol Hill Beacon) announced that the
> Oklahoma City calling area has been expanded to include all exchanges
> wthin 35 miles of the "Central Oklahoma City exchange area".

In distance, I remember a local calling area that got all of this
beat.  It was a local call from Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands to
Honolulu (about 2200 miles).


Stan Krieger                     All opinions, advice, or suggestions, even
AT&T UNIX System Laboratories    if related to my employment, are my own and
Summit, NJ                       do not represent any public or private
att!uslunix!smk                  policies of my employer.