Steve Forrette <forrette@cory.berkeley.edu> (06/08/91)
I have an interesting report on how Pacific Bell implemented the recent local calling area expansion on my exchange. I just moved, and am now on 916-983. The expansion made a big difference for this area, as a lot of businesses/friends that people around here have to call were previously just outside the local calling area. As of 4:30pm on Friday, May 31, I noticed that the change had already taken effect. Calls to numbers in the 9-12 mile range (previously Zone 2, now Zone 1 "local") no longer required a preceeding "1", and in fact went to an error message if you tried to use the 1. I wondered how much automated equipment would not work properly for awhile because of this. Just think how many monitored alarm dialers would not work, among other things. This is particularly important, as even thought advance notice was given by Pacific Bell, there would be no way for an alarm company to provide uninterrupted service unless all customers' units were reprogrammed at precisely the moment that Pacific Bell made the change, which wasn't even at the published time of midnight on June 1. The interesting part is that by the evening of Monday, June 3, the (optional) 1 was again allowed. Calls would complete with or without the 1. Further investgation revealed that ALL local calls would allow the 1, even those that had never been toll. So, I can now dial ANY number in 916 by using a preceeding 1. Toll calls still require it, though. Since this change was not made until a couple of days after the official cutover, I wonder if Pacific Bell made the change as the result of a storm of complaints from all sorts of people complaining about things that dial not working right, and the time required to make the change. I assume that allowing 1 for local calls will not last forever, and is being done as an interim solution only, but only time will tell. Steve Forrette, forrette@cory.berkeley.edu
Nick Sayer <mrapple@quack.sac.ca.us> (06/10/91)
forrette@cory.berkeley.edu (Steve Forrette) writes: > The interesting part is that by the evening of Monday, June 3, the > (optional) 1 was again allowed. Calls would complete with or without > the 1. Further investgation revealed that ALL local calls would allow > the 1, even those that had never been toll. So, I can now dial ANY > number in 916 by using a preceeding 1. Toll calls still require it, > though. I just checked, and the same is now the case here in Stockton as well. I was under the impression that the BOCs operations in one LATA were supposed to be independant from the operations in other LATAs. If this is the case, why did the BOC here in Stockton suddenly get the same neat idea? If this is not the case, then Pac*Bell is a more evil threat to modern society than even I had imagined. I myself go a bit farther than Mr. Higdon. Why must Pac*Hell be the only phone company allowed to bring me dial tone? Granted, it would be expensive for a new phone company to come in and start from scratch, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be worth doing for them. Either there should be competing phone companies vying for my telecommunications dollar, or one BOC in each LATA whose job is to do nothing apart from providing local loops and dialtone for the least amount of money possible without drawing blood -- red ink. No Centrex, no Message Center, No 976, nothing. Perhaps even better would be a BOC whose job was ONLY the local loop (read: wire) management. Perhaps the dialtone and/or local calling could be broken open for competition too. Then each CO perhaps could be its own BOC. "Company Office" suddenly has new meaning. The CO could charge subscribers a nominal fee for each loop, and charge anyone who wanted to tie in a nominal fee for that. They would get from that enough money to maintain the wire plant and a small profit. Nick Sayer mrapple@quack.sac.ca.us N6QQQ 209-952-5347 (Telebit)