lbert359@pallas.athenanet.com (Lee Bertagnolli) (01/10/91)
I work for a company that handles payments for some of the various
Ameritech companies. One of my recent charges has been to develop a
mechanized agent collection system on PC's. The object is to put a PC
at the agent's office devoted to the task of collecting phone bills.
Said PC will be equipped with an OCR scanner, capable of reading the
scan line at the top of the payment stub.
In setting up the scanners and software, I have noticed that on the
newer Illinois and Indiana Bell payment stubs that there are *four*
digits for the prefix rather than three. Although on the samples I
have seen (including my own Illinois Bell phone bill) the lead digit
has been a zero, I do not believe that this is a filler digit, but has
been put there for expansion purposes.
Would anyone care to comment on this?
Lee Bertagnolli Voice: (217) 529-0359
West Lake Computers Data: (217) 529-0261
34 Hazel Lane UCP: {uunet}!pallas!lbert359
Springfield, Illinois 62703 Internet: lbert359@athenanet.com
[Moderator's Note: I think the intention is to use that as an area
code indication for billing purposes, i.e. 2=312, 5=815, 7=217, 8=708,
9=309, 1=618, etc. I'm not positive. There was some discussion awhile
back about how (once 708 kicked in) 'they now have more than one
ending in 8 ... and what adjustments had to be made in the software.'
Ameritech would not make such a drastic change (four digit prefixes)
without *lots* of consultation with other telcos, etc. I'm sure it
would be common news if it were planned. PAT]