DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu) (DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN) (06/15/90)
Speaking of using the "#" (pound) sign to time out, you can also use it on the "newer" AT&T Calling Card system to designate that you have entered your desired number. Let me try to explain that... Some areas have the "old" style Calling Card system - same system for local and Long Distance calls. You usually will hear "<bong> AT&T" and "Thank you for using AT&T" on AT&T calls, and the standard "<bong>" and "Thank you" for local calls. (There might not even be a distinction for local /AT&T) You can sequence-call (make multiple calls using the "#" key) from local to LD and vice versa. I've noticed this in the Washington, D.C. area, rural Pennsylvania, and some older exchanges in SNET and NET territory. Other areas, like New York and Califoria, have two calling card systems: one for local calls (where you would hear "Thank you for using Pac*Bell" or "New York Tel") and the other for AT&T calls, where what you are really getting is the "old" system listed above, but *without* the ability to sequence call to local numbers. IE, they changed the "You may dial another call now" message to "You may dial another AT&T handled call now." (And if you're bad and try a local call, the AT&T computer gets mad, and sternly warns you: "You may ONLY dial another AT&T call, now!!") In this system, as in the "old" system, if you press the "#" key for a sequence call, and then dial Area Code + 7 digits, your *immediately* hear the "Thank you" and your call is processed right away. Finally, there seems to be a newer system that AT&T is using. The "Thank you" voice is somewhat different from the old system. More importantly, if you dial the "#" sign to make a sequence call, and then dial the next call by dialing Area Code + seven digits, the system *waits* for a timeout! IE, it doesn't seem to realize that an Area Code + seven digits is a FULL number, and that it shouldn't wait any longer. So, after you enter a complete number, you can expect to wait four or five seconds before you hear the "Thank you" and have your call go through. Another difference in regards to the newer system is that when you dial a sequence call, and enter an invalid number, (ie, 408-320-xxxx, since there is no 320 prefix in 408, at least none that AT&T will let you dial), the system *itself* tells you that it was an invalid exchange which you dialed. On the older systems, your call would go through to the standard AT&T intercept message for an invalid exchange. IE, you would hear "Thank You", and then get the message "<alert tones> Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the number, and dial again. [NPA from where you are calling from]-2T". On the newer system, you never hear this, and get the calling card computer telling you that you have dialed an invalid number. I initially thought that the delay on the newer AT&T system was due to it checking to see if the exchange you dialed was valid in the area code you were trying to reach, but if you hit the "#" sign to make the Area Code + seven digit call go through immediately, you will get the message from the calling card system (and NOT the general AT&T message) that your call can not be completed. So it doesn't seem to need to extra time to determine if the exchange is valid or not. Why then is the system so much slower? Although four or five seconds per sequence call is insignificant to most users, if all AT&T's calling card calls were added up, this would result in a significant amount of time that the network is tied up, seemingly unecessarily. It is also much less convenient to the customers, since after a multiple sequence calls, they could have lost a minute of so of their time. (OK, well, it sounds like a little, but try just standing around a payphone for a minute not doing anything...) Sorry I can't be any more specific about the "new" vs. "old" systems ... I know that SNET/Connecticut uses the newer system in some of the more heavily populated areas of the state (Hartford), NY Tel in Westchester, NE Tel in Metro Boston (Hingham 617-749, Milton 617-698), C&P Tel in New Castle, DE (I think...). A good way of distinguishing the "old" from the "new" system is that the "old" one, upon making a sequence calls, would say "You may dial another call now" or "You may dial another AT&T handled call now", while the new system says the same thing, BUT, it pauses between "...another" and "AT&T...". IE, you hear "You may dial another ...<pause>... AT&T handled call now." I wondered why it did this, and then a few weeks ago on Staten Island (NY), I made a local calling card call. Instead of the usual NY Tel equipment, I heard: "You may dial another ...<pause>...local telephone company call now". This sounds EXACTLY like the new AT&T system, except it says "local telco" rather than "AT&T" call. Is AT&T letting local telco's use its system? One final thing - the "new" system says you can only sequence call to "AT&T handled calls"..well, not really...I've always been able to sequence call to local calls as well. I tried this from Croton Falls, NY a few days ago, and it worked fine. However, you must be using the "new" system - the older one that was "tweaked" to allow only AT&T calls will not let you sequence call locally, as a general rule. Of course, since each exchange seems to have its own slight variation of how calling card calls are handled (my X-Bar ["old" system] is different from my ESS ["middle" system] is different from my DMS ["new" system] ), deciding which system you are under can get quite confusing! If anyone (1) has any idea what I am talking about :-) ,and (2) knows why the "new" system was designed as such, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Thanks, Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu / @wesleyan.bitnet
Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil> (06/15/90)
DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN) <DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu> wrote: > C&P Tel in New Castle, DE (I think...) C&P does not serve Delaware. Delaware comes under Diamond State/Bell of Pa. C&P serves Md./DC/Va./W.Va. He also wrote: > "<alert tones> Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check > the number, and dial again. [NPA from where you are calling from]-2T". From Delaware, which is area 302, I have gotten area code 215 inserted in messages like this.