Dave Leibold <Dave.Leibold@f135.n82.z89.onebdos.UUCP> (05/02/91)
The results of trying to find a place name from the various long distance operators in the U.S. are interesting. In this case, each operator was presented with the exchange 416-771, which is a brand new Thornhill, Ontario prefix (active as of the end of March). It's a tad unfair to spring something that new on anyone, but let's see what happened... #1 - US Sprint: Dial 10333 + 0 for their operator ... they answer in a reasonable time, but were unable to find out where 416-771 was, other than that the area code was in Ontario. #2 - MCI: Dial 10222 + 0 for MCI operator ... one thing about MCI's operators is that they can take quite a long time to answer. After giving 416-771 to them to find a place for it, the operator said "one moment" many times (an explanation for the large number of rings?!?), had an interim location of "Canada" then ultimately gave "Toronto" as the answer. Close, but not quite icing on the cookie. #3 - AT&T: 10288 + 0 ... without much delay, the AT&T operator seemed to be the right choice, and came up with Thornhill without much trouble. This only reflects an early evening trial, and may not be too scientific, but it gives a bit of an idea as to what place name finding can be had. Finally, I tried doing a place name from a Metromedia/ITT operator some other day and they weren't able to find that stuff out. Dave Leibold - via IMEx node 89:681/1 Dave.Leibold@f135.n82.z89.onebdos.UUCP