jyoull@cis.ohio-state.edu (Jim Youll) (10/01/90)
My last phone bill listed long distance calls to Cleveland, etc. but also showed calls to : WASZ 2 MD PHSZ 43 PA These calls were handled by an aggregator. Any idea why the funny destination names, and what they mean? Thanks... Jim
de@cs.rit.edu (Dave Esan) (11/03/90)
In article <12858@accuvax.nwu.edu> bgsuvax!jyoull@cis.ohio-state.edu (Jim Youll) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 701, Message 4 of 11 >My last phone bill listed long distance calls to Cleveland, etc. >but also showed calls to : > WASZ 2 MD > PHSZ 43 PA >These calls were handled by an aggregator. Any idea why the funny >destination names, and what they mean? I suspect that the aggregator is using a product from my company, or from a similar company to bill his calls. Let me briefly explain how these names are used. We acquire our V&H data (that is the vertical and horizontal coordinates for each area code-exchange combination) from BellCore. They define a name for each NPA/NXX. However, that name is not always descriptive of the location. New York City is a large place, and does not accurately describe where the call went. Furthermore, most major cities have zoned local calling, that is making a call is not a flat rate, but rather costs differently for each zone that you call to. We are forced then to create our own V&H coordinates for cities that are zoned and that BellCore does not believe is zoned, or even for cities like Chicago (the Moderator's town), which has more zones than BellCore admits exists. To differentiate between zones, we give them the number or names that the local telephone company does. Thus NYCZ 1 is New York City Zone 1, WASZ 2 is Washington Suburban Zone 2, and PHSZ 43 is Philadelphia Suburban Zone 43. They do match the local tariff, and probably make sense to a person in that town. A place like Chicago may include CHCZ 1 (Chicago City Zone 1) and wonderful town names like SKOKIE (which may or may not really be SKOKIE, but is rather the zone that Illinois Bell says is Skokie.) David Esan de@moscom.com