djcl@uunet.uu.net> (06/26/90)
Strange things are afoot in Ottawa, Ontario these days: 1. From phones on the 238 exchange (payphones in the downtown area for instance), dialing up a wrong exchange will not only get a recording, but it seems other people dialing wrong exchanges as well. Thus, it would seem if you don't mind sharing a voice conference centre with Bell recordings in two languages, there seems to be a party line. 2. There are some mystery exchanges like 327 which are dialable from Ottawa phones, but neither ALEX's rate/place name feature nor any other sources seem to know what that is (it would be in 613 as the 819 area code version is long distance from Ottawa-Hull). The whole plan of an Ottawa-Hull exchange, split over two area codes (613 and 819) is something of a mysterious thing itself. 3. Many payphones also feature an experimental voice message system that kicks in if a call is busy or not answered. You are given the option to record a message, for which the Bell system will call your target phone every fifteen minutes for two hours attempting to deliver it. There are a few bugs with it, as it is possible to flash a switchhook after dialing up a wrong number recording, then getting the recording asking if you want to record a message or not. Wonder where the message goes from there if the number doesn't exist ...??? Any bugs mentioned above are subject to fixing, perhaps even by the time this gets read.