[comp.dcom.telecom] Zone Maps Are Desirable

lairdb@crash.cts.com (Laird P. Broadfield) (11/01/90)

In article <14161@accuvax.nwu.edu> dave@westmark.westmark.com (Dave
Levenson) writes:

>In article <14148@accuvax.nwu.edu>, george@wciu.edu (George Peavy) writes:

>  [assorted discussions of criss-cross, Polk, etc. directories deleted]

Along the same lines, I've traveled to a couple of cities (I _think_
St.  Louis, MO was one) where the telephone book included a one-page
reference that translated the centrex number to a city map (i.e. you
want to know what part of the city 234-xxxx is in, so you look in the
table, and it says "234 ... area 17" so you look at the map, and
there's a little squiggly shape with 17 marked in it.)

This is something that I have often wanted (yes, we all get a feel for
this in our hometowns after long enough, but a definitive reference
would be nice.)  Is there any particular reason most (assumption)
telcos don't publish one of these?  Is this one of those things (like
so many telco things) that if I just knew the right name for it I
could ask my account rep for one and she'd hand it to me?


Laird P. Broadfield                      
UUCP: {akgua, sdcsvax, nosc}!crash!lairdb
INET: lairdb@crash.cts.com               


[Moderator's Note: Illinois Bell prints lists of all exchanges in the
312/708 area codes, along with prefixes in 815/219/414 within this
LATA in their phone directories, with a reference to where it is in
the city, or which suburb handles it.  PAT]

rnewman@uunet.uu.net (Ron Newman) (11/07/90)

New England Telephone doesn't publish a map, but their Boston-area
white pages do have four pages of listings matching the first three
digits of any Massachusetts phone number (area codes 413, 508, and
617) to a city, town, or subdistrict of Boston.

The table entries look like this:

Code			Location

  221			Burlington
  223			Boston
  427			Roxbury

 ... and so on.  To the phone company, "Boston" is a very small
district comprising downtown, Back Bay, and some very close-in
neighborhoods (North End, South End, West End); the rest of the city
is divided into smaller, well-known districts like "Mattapan",
"Dorchester", "Brighton", and "Roxbury".

Another page of the book lists all towns and subdistricts in the
Boston area, and which exchanges are found in them.

I know that the phone companies in Los Angeles publish similiar
information in the front of their directories; I'm surprised to read
that every U.S. phone company doesn't do this!


Ron Newman