leichter@lrw.com (LEICHTER-JERRY@CS.YALE.EDU) (07/18/90)
Ken Abrams, in response to my complaint about intercepts for things like a missing leading "1" which right for a while, then answer, writes: >"You can please some of the people all the time and all of the people >some of the time" ... >I'm not sure exactly what the complaint was since I didn't see it. >The whole seven digit number must be dialed because a LOT of people >get VERY confused when you interrupt them in the middle of dialing. So much I can accept. >This varies some depending on the place you are calling from and >exactly what kind of invalid number you dialed. Most announcements >ring a few times to allow the message to play starting at the >beginning instead of "barging in" in the middle. Even digitally >recorded messages are usually presented to the network in cycles and >wait for the start of the cycle just like mechanical drums. This doesn't match observation "on the ground". If the announcement had to make it back to the beginning, and were cycling continuously, the number of rings before the intercept would vary from call to call. In fact, it varies by at most about half a ring - pickup is ALWAYS during the third ring, as far as I can determine. BTW, I recently discovered exactly the same annoying behavior at some phones set up at DECWORLD, currently going on in Boston. They have some phones with a very interesting configuration: There are some non-dial phones available to the public. The phones are labeled with phone numbers, but are also claimed not to accept incoming calls. (I haven't tested this.) Calls FROM those phones can only be made in 0+ form. Generally, people are using them for credit card calls. You have to use 0+ and a credit card even for local calls! You CANNOT reach directory assistance in any way I've been able to find, short of dialing 0, waiting for the operator timeout, then asking the operator to make the connection. (I wasted a lot of time on this one, and I've seen other people also wasting their time. 555-1212? 1-555-1212? 0-555-1212? With a couple of rings before intercept, plus time to get dial tone back, you've already wasted a minute or so - and not yet gotten anywhere.) Some of the intercept messages you get can be very bizarre - e.g., you can be told that you must not dial 1 before some number when in fact you DIDN'T dial 1. Jerry