IZZYAS1@mvs.oac.ucla.edu (Andy Jacobson) (05/10/91)
In TELECOM Digest V11 #333 > Moderator's Note: In olden-times, when AT&T was the sole player, 800 > prefixes did indeed match up to specific states or geographic areas. > They were also tied into 'calling bands', indicating if calls to the > 800 number would be accepted nationwide, or only from certain states. > Now, statewide only or limited area 800 lines are rather scarce. Most > folks have nationwide coverage on their 800 lines, and the prefixes > denote *which carrier* handles the traffic except in AT&T's case where > their (numerous) prefixes still to some extent denote a geographic > area and/or type of call to be accepted. Is this incomming WATS service rather scarce? I know of many companies that have calls routed to different 800 numbers depending on the calling region. These numbers are not dialable outside of their region. In fact it seems the larger the company (distributorships), the more likely this arrangement. I know of only one example, a herb and spice shop called No Common Scents in Yellow Springs Ohio, who have an 800 number available in only one region (OH, PA, KY, IN, MI), but I'm sure there are still many out there. Does anyone know if the one region only type service is grandfathered, or just fallen to disuse. TELECOM Digest V11 #334 > Moderator's Note: This is about the same thing that happened here in > Chicago. 312 is exclusive to postal code 606xx, while 708 is found in > the 600, 601, 604, and 605xx areas. PAT But Pat, what about 602xx, the huge suburban (708) postal code for little Evanston? Andy Jacobson<izzyas1@oac.ucla.edu> or <izzyas1@UCLAMVS.bitnet> [Moderator's Note: I should have included 602xx, and in fact Carl Moore noted this in a followup message. Regards limited area WATS lines incoming and outgoing, I suppose you can still get them, but I can't imagine it being worth the trouble unless you have a huge volume of incoming/outgoing WATS calls where every penny counts. I suppose a lot of large users do fall in that catgory however. PAT]