DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu) (DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN) (10/04/90)
I've seen some of those "strange call to:" on bills as well, mainly cellular phone bills and marine (ship-to-shore) phone bills. I think they refer to certain areas within a larger metropolitan area. I once got NYCZ2, which the nice people at NYTel told me was Mid-town Manhattan. I've also gotten SFCZ3, which, if it has anything to do with how Pac*Bell does its "ZUM" (Zone Unit Measurement) system for local calls, corresponds to "Zone 3" in the Pac*Bell SF book. (Is this so?) I have an old NYTel directory (1979), and it lists the 15 New York Zones, the 9 Nassau Zones, and the 9 Westchester Zones. I don't believe that these are used for customer calling purposes anymore, as they have been replaced (at least in the New York Metro area) by a wider-area calling system. However, they do pop up on non-Telco bills every so often, and every time I ask "why?", I am usually told "Oh, the billing computer doesn't know the REAL name for the place..." (Err..yeah...right..New York is *SUCH* a small,unheard of place that anyone could have made that mistake! ;-) ). I've never seen these occur for more rural areas, however... (Oh, if anyone wants a copy of the 1979 Call Zone map, it's in all of the New York City 1979 directories, or I can mail/fax you one if you are really interested...) Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet