"David G. Cantor" <dgc@math.ucla.edu> (04/26/91)
In TELECOM Digest V11 #305 John Higdon states: > With the advent of free 900/976 blocking, this whole debate can > be concluded at long last. I wish that were true. The latest (issued, March 1991) San Diego Pac Bell directory states: "Most customers can choose to have California 900 and 976 blocked from their telephone line." And the latest (Also issued March, 1991) Western Los Angeles GTE directory states: "This feature, if available in your area, allows you to block the direct dial of 976 numbers within California and all 900 numbers from your telephone. If you chose this service, you will be unable to place calls to all 976 numbers within California and all 900 numbers." Note that Pac Bell limits blocking to "most customers" and "California 976 and 900" (whatever that means) and GTE has a similar restriction for 976 numbers. If the telcos really wanted to provide complete blocking, they obviously could! Besides, next year the telcos will probably invent 901 numbers, then 902 numbers. David G. Cantor Department of Mathematics University of California Los Angeles, CA 90024-1555 Internet: dgc@math.ucla.edu [Moderator's Note: I assume you meant the last paragraph as a joke since of course we already have '901 and 902 numbers'. PAT]
Steve Forrette <forrette@cory.berkeley.edu> (04/29/91)
In article <telecom11.309.11@eecs.nwu.edu> David Cantor writes: > I wish that were true. The latest (issued, March 1991) San Diego Pac > Bell directory states: > "Most customers can choose to have California 900 and > 976 blocked from their telephone line." > Note that Pac Bell limits blocking to "most customers" and "California > 976 and 900" (whatever that means) and GTE has a similar restriction > for 976 numbers. Some of the older exchanges (such as #5 crossbar) can't handle it on a line- by-line basis. Last year, I had service from 415-848, which was #5 crossbar (since cut over to something else just last month), and to prevent unwanted 900/976 calls, they were blocked from *all* numbers in the exchange. That's right, if you were on that exchange, and wanted to be able to call 900/976 numbers, you would have to change your number to a newer exchange. I assume that this policy is in effect everywhere that Pacific Bell serves. As far as I can tell, the blocking is in effect for ALL 900 numbers, and to California 976 numbers. Although Pacific Bell will allow calls to inter-state 976 numbers, no major long distance carrier will carry them, so they are in effect blocked as well (I tried AT&T, MCI, US Sprint, and ComSystems). The MCI recording said that "MCI does not complete calls to 976 at this time." All the others had more generic "can't be completed as dialed" recordings. And 900/976 calls cannot be billed to a calling card by a LEC or major IXC. A 0+ call to 900 or California 976 will be blocked at the switch if you're calling from Pacific Bell's territory. It used to be that an AT&T operator would complete a calling card call to an inter-LATA, intra-state 976 call if you asked nicely, but now the "policy" forbids it. Notice I say "major" IXC - see my next message! Steve Forrette, forrette@cory.berkeley.edu
oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov (04/29/91)
In article <telecom11.309.11@eecs.nwu.edu>, dgc@math.ucla.edu (David G. Cantor) writes: > If the telcos really wanted to provide complete blocking, they > obviously could! You are making some assumptions about telphone COs that are not valid. A couple of years ago I received a note that my switch is not allow per line blocking of 976 calls and that I had my choice of switching to a new switch (and number) or not having access to any 976 numbers. In other words, since they couldn't do per-line blocking, they blocked 976 calls for the entire switch! I thought that was nice of them. After about 1 uSecond of careful deiberation I decided to sacrifice access to 976 "pproviders". R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: oberman@icdc.llnl.gov (415) 422-6955 Disclaimer: Don't take this too seriously. I just like to improve my typing and probably don't really know anything useful about anything.