[comp.dcom.telecom] News From 919

ggw@duke.cs.duke.edu (Gregory G. Woodbury) (02/27/90)

Greetings from the 919 GTE satrapy!

Here is a submission with a variety of notes about what's happening in
the Durham and North Carolina area (telecom related).

EXPANSION OF NUMBERING PLAN IN 919

All "long distance" calling in 919 will require access+10 digits
starting sometime in March, 1990.  The consumers have lots of lead
time on this one!  2 weeks ago, a few articles appeared in a few
newspapers around the state revealing that the phone companies are
running out of exchange numbers in the 919 area code, and soon we will
have to start dialing all non-local calls with the full 10 digits.
The selected start date for this new dialing scheme is at midnight
following Friday, March 2nd, 1990.  Southern Bell is coordinating the
cutover with all 919 carriers.


NC PUC CATCHES SBT IN LETTER CAMPAIGN

The NC Public Utilities Commission is considering rules for the
offering of CPID/ANI in the state.  Several consumer advocacy and
privacy watchdogs have intervened in the case to prevent the
introduction of the service without some form of protection for
certain classes of businesses and individuals.  SBT management sent a
memorandum to its employees encouraging them to send letters
supporting CPID/ANI to the PUC and informing the employees doing so
that they should not reveal that they are SBT employees and providing
several example letters.

The scheme was discovered by PUC staff noticing that they were getting
a lot of identical letters mentioning the same business and situation
(i.e.  a pizza delivery service wanting ANI to help eliminate prank
pizza orders).  The number of letters received with this situation was
more than double the number of pizza delivery services operating in
the areas were the persons writing letters were located.

PUC Investigators unearthed copies of the SBT memo and are reviewing
all letters received for more duplicity.


ORANGE COUNTY AND TOWNS INVESTIGATE MUNICIPAL BBS

Inspired by the Santa Monica (California) PEN municipal BBS, a group
of citizens in Orange County (Chapel Hill/Carrboro and Hillsboro are
the major municipalities) have approached the county and municipal
governments for funding and equipment to establish a similar system
for the county and municipalities.

Access to the system will be dial-up from home computers and a variety
of terminals in public locations.  Functions included feature email,
community info databases and netnews-like discussion forums.  The
software for the project is being developed locally by the group.


DUKE UNIVERSITY TO INSTALL FIRST DEPARTMENTAL ISDN SITUATION

Duke University, featured as an ISDN test site in several AT&T switch
ads in various publications is planning to completely rewire on of the
departmental buildings on campus with full ISDN capable equipment in
the spring of 1990.  The Sociology department (the largest consumer of
university computing resources on campus - outside of CS [which has
their own equipment]) has been in desperate need of more lines in its
building for several years, but there is no space in the existing
plant to add more traditional circuits.  To solve the problem, the
Duke Telecom division has announced its plans to implement full ISDN
in the department.


Gregory G. Woodbury
Sysop/owner Wolves Den UNIX BBS, Durham NC
UUCP: ...dukcds!wolves!ggw   ...dukeac!wolves!ggw           [use the maps!]
Domain: ggw@cds.duke.edu  ggw@ac.duke.edu  ggw%wolves@ac.duke.edu
Phone: +1 919 493 1998 (Home)  +1 919 684 6126 (Work)
[The line eater is a boojum snark! ]           <standard disclaimers apply>

goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) (03/04/90)

In article <4452@accuvax.nwu.edu>, wolves.uucp!ggw@duke.cs.duke.edu (Gregory 
G. Woodbury) writes:
 
> Greetings from the 919 GTE satrapy!
 
> EXPANSION OF NUMBERING PLAN IN 919
 
> All "long distance" calling in 919 will require access+10 digits
> starting sometime in March, 1990.  The consumers have lots of lead
> time on this one!  2 weeks ago, a few articles appeared in a few
> newspapers around the state revealing that the phone companies are
> running out of exchange numbers in the 919 area code, and soon we will
> have to start dialing all non-local calls with the full 10 digits.
> The selected start date for this new dialing scheme is at midnight
> following Friday, March 2nd, 1990.  Southern Bell is coordinating the
> cutover with all 919 carriers.

It wasn't that much of a surprise.  The _News_and_Observer_ (of
Raleigh) carried an article *last fall* about the coming change.  The
most recent set of Southern Bell phone directories carry big warning
messages about it right on the cover.  The Chapel Hill/Carrboro
directory, for example, came out in December, thus giving its
subscribers at least three months advance notice.  (In contrast, the
Durham directory from GTE (dated January 1990) makes no mention at all
about there being a change -- you have to read the fine print in the
dialing instructions on page 15.)  Also, my phone bill from a couple
of months ago had an insert describing the change.  (Note however,
that I live in Cary, which is in Southern-Bell-land as opposed to the
GTE Satrapy.)

Incidentally, the new 11-digit dialing scheme applies to *both* NPAs
in North Carolina: 919 and 704.  It's not specific to 919.


Bob Goudreau				+1 919 248 6231
Data General Corporation
62 Alexander Drive			goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com
Research Triangle Park, NC  27709	...!mcnc!rti!xyzzy!goudreau
USA