0003382352@mcimail.com (A. Alan Toscano) (03/19/91)
Recently, our Moderator wondered... > [Moderator's Note: I wonder if Calling Cards automatically do > NOT use PINS in the 15xx series to avoid billing conflicts. PAT] Well, I've been meaning to mention this, so ... thanks Pat, for jarring my memory! Bellcore compliant Calling Card PINs are of the NXXX format. An initial zero isn't used because an initial dialed digit of zero following the prompt tone, directs your call to an operator without timeout. Thus, abbreviated dialing (where you just dial the PIN when calling home), wouldn't work for PINs beginning with zero. An initial digit of one, indicates some time of billing other that Calling Card. Here in Southwestern Bell land, 11- indicates automated collect calling (intra-LATA calls only, of course). Current MCI- and US Sprint-issued fourteen digit calling cards are *not* Bellcore compliant and may have PINs which begin with zero or one. Many US carriers plan to issue this summer, to all of their customers, new cards which will have new-style international card numbers. Under the new CCITT plan, international numbers will have the digits "89" followed by a country code, a carrier code (in countries where applicable, such as the US), and finally a distinguishing customer number. Some carriers may choose to use the 891 format for domestic calling on their own networks as well. "89" is supposed to distinguish telco cards from other major credit/debit cards. On yet another related subject, there have been mentions here of AT&T issuing "random numbered" card numbers on its Universal, Corporate and Non-subscriber cards. Actually, they're not entirely random. The cards' six digit prefixes have been assigned to them by Bellcore. IXC prefixes have an initial digit in the two to five range (to distinguish them from LEC-RAO prefixes) and a fourth digit of zero or one. A carrier may be assigned several such prefixes. To my knowledge only AT&T issues such cards at present (and only for accounts which it bills directly, rather than through LECs), but I wouldn't be surprized to see other carriers use these numbers as well (for domestic calling) on the new cards they issue this summer. A. Alan Toscano Voice: +1 713 236 6616 MCI Mail: ATOSCANO <0003382352@mcimail.com> Telex: 6975956AAT UW CIS: 73300,217 [Moderator's Note: We use 11 for collect calling, and 12 for billing to a credit card or third number here in IBT-land. PAT]