johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) (08/13/90)
Here in the Garden State, 411 gets you directory assistance for your
NPA. The 609 NPA is divided up into two little bitty LATAs, but 411
will give you numbers in either LATA for free. (Well, free for the
first 10 calls per month, but that's pretty close.) The local phone
book, which lists both 908 and 609 numbers doesn't say whether 411
from a 908 phone will provide 201 numbers. I'm sure it does now, but
I wonder whether they plan to split the current 201 DA bureau into two
parts, and if so, whether they want to charge for calls from
201-555-1212 from 908 and vice versa. Calls from 609 to 201-555-1212
are inter-LATA calls and cost whatever your carrier charges. My
carrier, Sprint, charges 50 cents with no free monthly allowance, even
though they still give you a free interstate DA call per month.
Meanwhile in Massachusetts, 411 gives you local DA, and 1-555-1212
gives you long distance DA within your NPA. At least before the
617/508 split, I would occasionally dial 411, and when I named the
city the operator would tell me to call 555-1212 instead. Since the
split, nearly every point in 617 is a local call from nearly every
other point and I don't know whether they still bother to make the
distinction. The last time I checked, 617 and 508 had the same DA
bureau, you could call 508-555-1212 and get a 617 number. From
residence phones all intra-state DA calls in Massachusetts are free.
My Sprint bill occasionally has a call to 413-555-1212 with a listed
.00 charge. New England Tel uses the 555 prefix for a variety of
special services, most notably 555-1616 is residence or coin phone
repair.
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!esegue!johnl