cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) (06/01/90)
Doug Reuben and David Tamkin write about 0+ calls in areas which have N0X/N1X prefixes. All such areas that I know of require 0+NPA+7D for all 0+ calls--EXCEPT that 213 area (now 213/818) used to require only 0+7D for 0+ calls within NPA. There, as I heard from this Digest way back around 1981 when JSol was Moderator, you needed timeout to distinguish between, say, 0-413-2345 and 0-413-234-5678. But buried in a recent Los Angeles area directory was 0+NPA+7D, apparently for all 0+ calls.
DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu) (DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN) (06/03/90)
[Moderator's Note: A response to a letter from Carl Moore. PT] Carl- Actually, the 1/1AESS's in Queens and Brooklyn (718) New York allowed 1+ and 0+7 digit dialing for a while, and the same problem came up. One could dial 0+403-9970, and the payphone would wait for a few more digits. (Or you could dial 0-403-555-1111 or whatever, and it went straight through...) I found that using the "#" sign at the end of the seven digit number would tell the exchange to immediately process the call, rather than wait for the timeout (I think someone on the Digest mus have mentioned this allready, though..). The odd thing was that you were also able to dial 1+ 7 digits for local calls to SOME areas. IE, you could dial 1+336-9950 from a 718 1AESS in Queens to reach (then then 336 1XBar (?)) in Brooklyn, which was a local call. Yet you weren't allowed to dial 1+ to reach other exhanges nearby, ie also local (718-643, 398, etc...) Since I wasn't too familiar with where any of the 'towns' in Brooklyn are, I assumed that the 1+ calls were historically toll calls, and the ones which refused 1+ were not. When I found out that some of the exchanges which accepted 1+ before the seven digits were CLOSER to me than the ones which did not, I called NY Tel to ask why this happened. The rep said that they NEVER charged toll rates at any piont in time to those areas (all of NYC, except Staten Island, was "local" since the late 1940's, it seems...), and that it was a mistake that the calls accepted a 1+ first. A few weeks later, the 1+/0+ thing no longer worked, which I guess shows you not to complain to NY Tel! (You can still try the timeout thing though, by dialing 0+AC+#, after the card # is accepted dial "#", and place a new call to 403-9950. The Calling Card equipment will wait for a while to see if you time out, and then put the call through to 403-9950. Of course, you can always enter the "#" key before you hear the "Thank You" (no "...for using AT&T" since it's local and it's a 'sequence call'...) which will put the call through immediatly. I think you can still do 0+7 digits in the 415 area (Bay Area/SF). But then I'm not sure whether they have any exchanges that look like area code in the 415 area yet (ie, N0X/N1X exhcanges)... Doug