johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) (02/23/91)
In article <telecom11.146.7@eecs.nwu.edu> is written: > I live very close to the New Hampshire - Vermont border, in New Hampshire. > The entire state of NH is one LATA, and the same goes for VT. However, my > local calling area is made up of two NH exchanges, and three VT exchanges. > How is it that I can call across a LATA boundary as a local call? Inter-LATA toll calling is reserved to long distance carriers. Other kinds of inter-LATA calls can be carried by the local telco. This includes local calls and calls for the telco's use. In the particular case of New Hampshire and Vermont, calls between adjacent towns across the river (the boundary is the west bank of the Connecticut River) are generally local and are dialed with seven digits, since neither 603 nor 802 is short of prefixes. One day while shopping in West Lebanon NH I needed to call Woodstock VT which I happened to know was a local call even though Woodstock isn't on the river. I discovered that either I could drop in a dime and dial the seven digits, or I could dial 1-802-seven digits at which point the dime came back if I had deposited one and the AT&T Lady said "ten, cents, please ..." I am intrigued that AT&T knew to rate that call specially rather than as a regular interstate inter-LATA toll call which, after all, it was. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl [MModerator's Note: We have instances of inter-lata, but local calling on the far south side of Chicago, where the Indiana/Illinois state line divides the metropolitan area. The Indiana communities of Whiting and Hammond can call a couple exchanges in Chicago and several south suburban communities. They are Indiana Bell, and of course we are Illinois Bell, but it is all considered local, untimed calling. PAT]