ndallen@contact.uucp (Nigel Allen) (02/24/91)
New Jersey Bell ran an ad in {Telecommunications Magazine} reminding
telecommunications managers that customer premises equipment should be
reprogrammed to include the new 908 area code.
"Remember," says the ad, "unless this new number is designated as an
allowable area code, calls to 908 through your Customer Premise
Equipment will not be completed."
This sounds pretty basic, but I dare say there are still some PBXes
out there that block calls to 908. Use of the new 908 code becomes
mandatory on June 8, 1991, I gather; until then, you can apparently
get away with using 201.
The ad lists a contact number for New Jersey Bell (which is fairly
cute when you look at it carefully): 1-800-242-Y908.
[Moderator's Note: How much would you like to wager that on June 8, 9
and 10 there will be hundreds of calls each day to telcos, equipment
maintainence firms and local telecom managers complaining that 'the
phones are not working right'. And when told what the 'problem' is
will complain that they had not known of it before. Despite intensive
promotion of 708, Illinois Bell was literally swamped with calls for
three days after the split became mandatory here. PAT]