hansm@cs.kun.nl (Hans Mulder) (02/27/91)
In article <telecom11.154.11@eecs.nwu.edu> david@cs.uow.edu.au (David E A Wilson) writes: > We can call special six digit international 800 numbers. Are you sure international 800 numbers exist today? If so, why do televised ads aiming at an international audience contain those screens full of national 800 numbers, when a single international 800 number would do the job? (I was about to say ``Look at any of those Euro-XXX channels'', but I guess David can't receive those in Australia.) It was my impresssion that the idea of international 800 number had occurred to the PTTs only recently and that it was still years away. > Is it just coincidence that most countries auto-reverse charge numbers start > with either 800/008 or is there an international standard? For what it's worth, auto-reverse charge numbers in the Netherlands start with 06-0 or 06-4. Have a nice day, Hans Mulder hansm@cs.kun.nl [Moderator's Note: Some 800 numbers are international, but relatively few in comparison to the total. The European versions of 'USA Direct' operating in this country (allowing residents of other countries visiting here to 'call home' and speak with an operator in their home country in their native language, just like USA Direct in reverse) all have 800 numbers assigned to them. And, there are a few others. PAT]
djcl@contact.uucp (woody) (03/03/91)
"International" 800 numbers just seem to be domestic toll-free numbers that get call-forwarded to their international destination. Canada has agreements with some countries for such service. However, each country has its own toll-free system (North America 1-800, UK 0800, and the Netherlands with 06-0/4). Numbering plan setups require different numbers in different countries. There was a posting in TELECOM Digest not too many months ago about some noises that a CCITT study group was making so as to provide a toll free country code so that a consistent dialing number may be had through the overseas dialing system. One flaw was that the proposed country code would be 800. While the idea of patterning the country code after the common 800 code (North America, UK), that in fact would be confusing for the existing domestic 800 services. Anyone with connections with the CCITT should push for a toll-free country code, but make it something other than 800 (like 991, which could see the 99X country codes used for special purposes; an international 900/976-style service, anyone? ;-)) djcl@contact.uucp ... in April, watch for postings from Florida
hpa@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Peter Anvin) (03/03/91)
In article <telecom11.164.4@eecs.nwu.edu> our Moderator Notes: > [Moderator's Note: Some 800 numbers are international, but relatively > few in comparison to the total. The European versions of 'USA Direct' > operating in this country (allowing residents of other countries > visiting here to 'call home' and speak with an operator in their home > country in their native language, just like USA Direct in reverse) all > have 800 numbers assigned to them. And, there are a few others. PAT] Those 800 numbers aren't international at all! You cannot dial them outside the NANP. They are *national access numbers*, accessing an international gateway, but you can only dial them from one country/region. For example, in Sweden all such numbers have Swedish 020-XX XX XX numbers, even if they terminate in Sweden, Belgium or the USA. The question is, when can we dial: 011-800-45-XX XX XX from the USA, 009-800-45-XX XX XX from Sweden, 00-800-45-XX XX XX from the EEC, 010-800-45-XX XX XX from the UK, 990-800-45-XX XX XX from Finland, (hope I am correct about this one) all to reach the same number, terminating in Norway? That way one number, +800 45 XX XX XX would do for all countries. (I think Norway is 45, but I am taking it off the top of my head.) hpa = H. Peter Anvin (in case you wondered) * Heja Sverige! INTERNET: hpa@casbah.acns.nwu.edu FIDONET: 1:115/989.4 HAM RADIO: N9ITP, SM4TKN RBBSNET: 8:970/101.4 [Moderator's Note: Sorry I misunderstood the original question, I guess. If the above is how you are defining it, then no, there is no such thing as 'international 800'. PAT]
gutierre@noc.arc.nasa.gov (Robert Michael Gutierrez) (03/03/91)
hansm@cs.kun.nl (Hans Mulder) writes: > Are you sure international 800 numbers exist today? If so, why do > televised ads aiming at an international audience contain those > screens full of national 800 numbers, when a single international 800 > number would do the job? True international 800 numbers don't exist, unfortunately. Wasn't CCITT working on a dialling plan to institute an international 800 system??? Consequently, here at NASA/NSI Network Ops, we have to have seven national 800 numbers (USA, France, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland and the U.K.), with seven different numbers to deal with, depending on where on this planet you are. > For what it's worth, auto-reverse charge numbers in the Netherlands > start with 06-0 or 06-4. That's right. Our Netherlands number starts as 06-022-XXXX. Robert Gutierrez - NASA Science Internet Network Operations. Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.