Todd Day <todd@ivucsb.sba.ca.us> (07/22/90)
Here is an interesting bit of information packed in with my latest GTE bill here in Santa Barbara, CA: UCSB Telephone Prefix Changes to 893 Beginning at 8 a.m. on August 4, you'll need to dial a new prefix when calling University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) telephone numbers. To meet increasing University telephone service needs, all 3,800 UCSB telephone numbers will change from the 961 to the 893 prefix at that time. The last four digits will remain the same. GTE is assisting UCSB in notifying you of the change to help make the transition a smooth one and lessen its impact on GTE's telephone number referral service, which also serves many other customers. Starting August 4, calls to UCSB's old 961 prefix will be intercepted by a message informing callers of the new prefix. UCSB is also publicizing the new prefix on campus, in the community and will notify students of the change prior to the start of classes on Sept. 20. GTE California Now, my questions for the net are: (1) Why did GTE feel it necessary to change UCSB at all when it appears that there were many numbers left in the current prefix? 9999 - 3800 = 6199 extensions left, right? (2) What does changing prefixes buy GTE? As far as I know, UCSB was the sole "owner" of the 961 prefix, although I had heard rumours that Delco GM and Santa Barbara Research Center had a couple of 961 phone lines that had something or other to do with the university. (3) If there is some kind of new magic box that GTE is installing to handle special needs of the univeristy, why couldn't they keep the 961 prefix and swap the lines from the old box to the new box on August 4? (4) If I call the university at 7:59am on August 4 using the 961 prefix, what will happen to my call at 8:00am? If we had caller ID out here, what would happen to an outgoing call? (5) Finally, a general question about intercepts. Why does it seem that the intercepts know exactly what you're trying to do, but just chastise you about dialing in the future and don't complete your call? Kinda reminds me of the parent who tells the child, "Now, go close the door again, and this time, do it GENTLY!" I've had this happen here where I forget to dial "1" to get out of the 805 area code. GTE knows I'm trying to dial long distance, 'cause they tell me that "calls to this number must be preceded by a '1'". But do they complete the call? NOOOO... Now, in the case of UCSB, instead of intercepting the 961, why don't they just tell the dialer about the change and complete his/her call to the 893 prefix anyway? Todd Day | temp@ ivucsb!todd@radius.com | soon@ ivucsb!todd@hub.ucsb.edu
john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (07/22/90)
Todd Day <todd@ivucsb.sba.ca.us> writes: > (4) If I call the university at 7:59am on August 4 using the 961 > prefix, what will happen to my call at 8:00am? If we had > caller ID out here, what would happen to an outgoing call? No matter when you make the call, it will be screwed up all day. Remember this is GTE. Why do you think they are making the change in the middle of summer? Since the CPID info is only transmitted at the beginning of the call, if you remained connected during the cut, nothing would happen on your display. I pity the university. > (5) Finally, a general question about intercepts. Why does it > seem that the intercepts know exactly what you're trying to > do, but just chastise you about dialing in the future and > don't complete your call? Obviously, you've never heard the Lily Tomlin routines or watched "The President's Analyst". Otherwise, you wouldn't ask such a silly question. I don't remember much about long distance calling before DDD, but I suspect that there was some truth to the routine. "Operator, I would like to call Washington, DC. The number is 736-5000." "Sir, the area code is 202" "Thank you, Operator" "What is the area code, please?" "Huh?" "The area code for Washington, DC is 202. Now what is the area code?" "202, Operator. The area code is 202." "Thank you, sir." > Now, in the case of UCSB, > instead of intercepting the 961, why don't they just tell the > dialer about the change and complete his/her call to the 893 > prefix anyway? Because, ultimately the caller WILL have to dial the 893 prefix. It's best to get them in the habit as early as possible. Otherwise, no one would change what they dialed until 961 actually became something else. And then you would have some customer really annoyed at the wrong numbers. I had a client move from the financial district to the south of Market area. This meant a change from the Bush/Pine CO to the Folsom St. CO and with it a number change. Their idea was to simply forward their old phone when they moved to their new number "to make the transition easier". I convinced them that it was a stupid idea. First, notification of the number change would become their sole responsibilty, since there would be no referral. If someone dials a number and it works, why change? All they would be doing is postponing the day of reckoning when the old number would eventually be disconnected. Second, they would be paying local charges for most of their incoming calls until they had the old number removed. Up until 1982, it was not necessary to dial an area code when calling across the 408/415 boundary within the metro Bay Area because it had been possible to avoid duplicating prefixes around the bay perimeter. Growth put an end to that, and a recording appeared that said "it is necessary to dial 415 when calling this number. Please hang up and dial your call again." There were the inevitable complaints about "if it knows that I need to dial 415, why not just put the call through?" Well, simply put, if that happened, suddenly that person would dial the seven digit number and find himself connected to a party in the wrong city since the prefix had been reused within his own area code. It's amazing how long a change has to be in place before the public gets the hang of it. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
dave%westmark@uunet.uu.net (Dave Levenson) (07/22/90)
In article <9993@accuvax.nwu.edu>, todd@ivucsb.sba.ca.us (Todd Day) writes: > UCSB Telephone Prefix Changes to 893 > (1) Why did GTE feel it necessary to change UCSB at all when it > appears that there were many numbers left in the current prefix? > 9999 - 3800 = 6199 extensions left, right? I have no direct knowlege of the numbering plan used by GTE in the Santa Barbara area, but generally, these changes enable a larger block of numbers to be available to the customer. Perhaps some of those apparently-available 6,199 extensions are assigned somewhere else? Perhaps the university centrex is being re-implemented on a physically new switch. This might be done to enable new and exciting telecom services not available on the present switch. If the old switch is being kept in service for other subscribers, the two switches probably can't share a prefix. > (5) Finally, a general question about intercepts. Why does it > seem that the intercepts know exactly what you're trying to > do, but just chastise you about dialing in the future and > don't complete your call? Kinda reminds me of the parent For now, the telco knows what you're trying to do, so they have enough information to complete your call. But the new dialing procedure, whatever it is, is being done to accomodate future expansion. At some point in the future, your invalid call attempt will not give them the information you meant. You will, in fact, be placing a call to a valid number that wasn't the one you wanted. If they just intercept and redirect your call, a lot of subscribers will ignore the intercept message and continue to use the obsolete calling procedure. Eventually, this will lead to trouble as the old numbers get re-assigned. The apparently-unnecessary intercept is being done to condition subscribers before it leads to an annoyance to new subscribers. For example, here in NJ they've just turned on a new area code. If callers call my old 201 number, they still reach my 908 number, but only for a while. Eventually, they'll be given a recording telling them to place the call using the 908 area code. Why can't they continue to be redirected? Because my old 201 number will eventually be re-assigned to a subscriber elsewhere in the 201 area code, while I'll keep the same number in the 908 code. The interval between when 201 calls are no longer re-directed, and when my number gets re-used in the 201 area code is done to protect the new subscriber from the folks who call me and ignore the advertising that we and the telco are doing to convert them. Dave Levenson Voice: 201 647 0900 Fax: 201 647 6857 Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave [The Man in the Mooney]
lars@spectrum.cmc.com (Lars Poulsen) (07/24/90)
In article <9993@accuvax.nwu.edu> todd@ivucsb.sba.ca.us (Todd Day) writes: > UCSB Telephone Prefix Changes to 893 I would hope that somebody from UCSB Telecom can give better information, but the following represents what I as a "neighbor" believe. >(1) Why did GTE feel it necessary to change UCSB at all when it > appears that there were many numbers left in the current prefix? > 9999 - 3800 = 6199 extensions left, right? Not necessarily, see below. >(2) What does changing prefixes buy GTE? As far as I know, UCSB > was the sole "owner" of the 961 prefix, although I had heard > rumours that Delco GM and Santa Barbara Research Center had > a couple of 961 phone lines that had something or other to > do with the university. I have always heard that the 805-961 prefix was shared between UCSB, SBRC, Delco and other companies with Centrex in the research park area. >(3) If there is some kind of new magic box that GTE is installing > to handle special needs of the univeristy, why couldn't they > keep the 961 prefix and swap the lines from the old box to > the new box on August 4? UCSB a couple of years ago replaced the Centrex service with a PBX. At the time they were allowed to keep the old number block. I suspect that the agreement at the time guaranteed the old numbers for a minimum period, which has now expired, and that GTE now wants to reclaim the old block either to expand other Centrexes in the area. >(4) If I call the university at 7:59am on August 4 using the 961 > prefix, what will happen to my call at 8:00am? If we had > caller ID out here, what would happen to an outgoing call? I don't know whether they will be moving the trunks to a different switch; if they do, the calls will drop (and there may actually be a few seconds when the lines are dead). If the cutover is all software, the calls will survive. I don't know if such cutovers are timed exactly enough that you'd be able to test it by placing such a call. (If the cutover actually happens 15 minutes later, your test would be invalid). Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer CMC Rockwell lars@CMC.COM